The Wizard Chronicles
by Willie Jackson
Summary: Chapter 15: Final chapter is avaliable.  This is it - the final battle between Kali and Misty for the balance of power.  Also, the one who helped her in all of this is revealed and it's someone that Willie knows all too well.  Enjoy!
1. Lunchtime Insanity

_Magic: The Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 1: Lunchtime Insanity

The cool wind blew rather briskly in the early November air as six students sit at a picnic table during their lunch break to play a simple no-risk game of Magic: The Gathering. Now the town of Varayan was simple in its own means but at the same time there were plenty of gamers and not all of them were on the straight and narrow. The school they all attended, Carson Central High, was the main high school in the city with a student population of 1,200. As the six students sat down and began their game as they ate their lunch, they looked around to make sure that they wouldn't get busted by either teachers and/or administrators. Some were looking over the other groups that normally get together during the period. Some of which started to cause trouble which got some of their attention leaving the players to play in peace.

"I guess we can start then if no one is going to bother us," responded Jesse, the leader of this group of six as the game gets going and he has the first move. "I'll play a mountain card and end my turn."

"Then I guess I'm next," responded Nick, the strongest player in the group and a specialist with black discard decks. "After I draw, I'll play a swamp, tap it to play a Dark Ritual, and then I play my Migrim. I'm done."

As the other four novice players take their turn, on the other end of the campus, a new player was making her way towards the group after coming from a classroom getting some help with an assignment. She was set to join the group during the period but she was struggling in one of her classes and wanted some extra help. Walking out of the building, she looked through her white/green deck seeking out her favorite card in Akroma, Angel of Wrath. She was proud of that card and also recently acquired her opposite card from the Future Sight set in Akroma, Angel of Fury. As she came out however, a loud scream came from a group of girls hanging out by the trailers. Looking over, she sees not one but three Aven Warhawks swooping down wreaking havoc with the girls and everyone running for the building for safety. Needless to say the game the six players were having was done as they all grabbed their cards and headed for the building except for Nick and Jesse who were less than surprised.

"Ok who summoned those crazy things," Nick said in disgust as he pulled out another deck and began searching for a card to take down those warhawks. "We'd better take care of them before we have a real problem on our hands."

"Are you nuts," Jesse stopped him. "If we go summoning creatures here, we'll get busted for having cards on campus and be in real trouble. Not to mention we might get our cards taken up."

"Well, we have to do something before something bad happens to those girls on that end of campus. We can't just do nothing."

"I know so we'll have to summon something to deal with those flyers."

The warhawks were still causing havoc in the direction where the young girl was and one of them had spotted her and started chasing very frantically. Eventually they chased the girl into the parking lot where they had her cornered at a tree near the flagpole. The three aven warhawks circled the tree scaring the girl. At that moment, Nick and Jesse made their way over to where the warhawks were and comtemplated a plan to get rid of them.

"I have several copies I can use called Claws of Wirewood," Jesse exclaimed as he pulled them out of his deck. "They should kill the warhawks without creating a scene."

"Too late for that," Nick exclaims as he prepared to summon three spiders to counter the flying warriors. "The principals are already trying to deal with them – look!" Indeed, the administration tried to save the girl from the flying attackers with simple means such a broom, a lead pipe and other items. They were about as effective as pouring dirt on a wound. They were flung back and one of the warhawks went after the frightened girl who dropped her deck in fear of the strike when the unthinkable happens: a white circle appeared and out comes her favorite creature, Akroma, who makes short work of the aven warhawks.

"Akroma," the girl said opening her eyes in shock seeing her favorite creature defend her and she nods before she disappears the way she came. Right after that, the girl passes out from the shock of everything that just happened. The teachers and administrators took the girl inside so she could recover from the traumatic experience she had to endure.

"That was certainly a surprise," Jesse confirms just as he was about to use his sorcery card to eliminate the warhawks. "Not every day that someone can summon a legendary creature and control it like that."

"I don't think she did it intentionally," Nick affirms as the two overlooked the aftermath of what happened. "Seemed like more of a reflex thing. By the way, wasn't she the one who was to join our little lunch group today?"

"I think so. I remember Willie saying something about he found a new member for our group and that she was to meet up with us today. Maybe that was her?"

"Too bad we can't ask him since he's in the next lunch period. We'll talk to him later on about it when we get a chance to see him." The guys head to their classes as the first lunch period ends.

The rest of the day had the guys wondering what spurred the attack on the campus and the girl. With no clear options, the guys head out for their after-school hangout spot. Along the way Nick tries to figure out what was behind the attack in the first place.

"Makes no sense that three warhawks would go on the warpath like that for no apparent reason," Nick suggested as they entered their hangout. "Someone had to summon them but I can't figure out who and why?"

"Plus they went after that girl with the Akroma card with no hesitation but the question is why?"

"Who knows? With our line of work, it could be the work of our enemies. We better be on the lookout for anyone suspicious."

In the basement of a three-story building on the outskirts of town, a crimson hooded individual made his way into the room and came face to face with the one deemed in charge of the group. She was a red head with a dark personality, black eyes, and a nasty attitude.

"I entrust that things went well at Carson High today?" the leader, whose name was Misty, wanted to know as the servant came in and nodded with a smile on his face.

"Things went better than expected," the servant responded. "The warhawks picked out several possible recruits who could pick up the game and join our cause."

"That's excellent news. We will pursue those individuals immediately. All we need to do is –"

"There's more unfortunately. The hawks chased this girl who somehow summoned Akroma, the Angel of Wrath. She destroyed the creatures before leaving and its caster passing out."

"That's troubling. Find out who this girl is and make sure that the mana wizards don't get in your way. If that happens, then they are to be eliminated."

"It will be done," he confirms before walking out of the room to proceed on the task.

"I wonder who this is. Something tells me a whole new game is about to begin."


	2. Truth and Discovery

_Magic: The Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 2: Truth and Discovery

A few days after the lunchtime fiasco at Carson Central High, Jesse met up at Nick's place to watch movies, play a game and discuss what went down at school earlier in the week. A few other of the lesser experienced players who hang out with the duo came over also to get a game going and that's what went down the late part of the morning. In the early afternoon, as the others left, a strange knock at the door catches the two wizards by surprise.

"You expecting anyone?" Jesse asked as he looked at Nick with curiosity.

"Not really," Nick quickly answered as he went to the door and opened it to find out who was knocking. "Probably someone lost or something." Opening the door revealed to be the girl that fainted after that attack at school had found his place. Hesitantly Nick let her in and she promptly takes a seat at the table where there are cards scattered.

"I was told to come here after talking to Willie. He'd said you were going to be here so here I am."

"So you're the one that he's been speaking of lately?" Jesse asks while looking the chick over as she nods answering his question.

"So why would Willie direct you to the two of us then," Nick asks curious of the strange young visitor."

"He said that you two could teach me how to play this game." She shows them her deck and right on top was the same Akroma card that fought off the warhawks the other day surprising both of the wizards themselves. "He said that he would do it but you two were better at than he was so again here I am."

"We did teach him how to play," Nick responded as he looked through her deck in earnest. "Sure we'll teach you what we know but you have to answer one question first—"

"My name's Kali and I'll answer any question you have to the best of my ability."

"Do you know anything about what happened at school a few days ago?"

"All I remember is coming out of the building and seeing these creatures." She points to the Aven Warhawk card that is in her deck confirming what she saw as she came out for lunch that day. "Then one of them started chasing me and then all three of them surrounded me at this tree in the parking lot. Then one of them came after me and I cringed and the next thing I know I'm on my back in the main office."

"Interesting that you didn't see who or what got rid of the creatures – if they even were creatures."

"I know they were creatures and not people in costumes. They can fly and carry swords and weapons are illegal on campus. No person I or anyone else knows can do that."

"You're right about that," Jesse affirms as he scans her deck smiling as he likes some of the cards she has in it. "So why don't we get started and we'll show you the basics." She nods and the three sat down and begin to walk her through the basics of the game.

Misty's servant, whose name was Damian, was on the prowl for the girl who used that Akroma card to fight off the warhawks when he receives a call on his cell phone from his master getting more orders.

"Yes my lady?" he answers as he spoke with a deep voice wondering what his master wanted.

"Change of plans," she tells him as he raised an eyebrow on his end and she continued with her new assignment for him. "I'll text you the location I want you to go to and eliminate the red and black wizards. That girl you talked about is over there and you're to bring her to me when you're done. Understood?"

"Yes my mistress. It shall be done." He hangs up and continues on to the job at hand. Back at Misty's, she turns to another one of her servants named Matilda, one of the top psychic players in her group, and asks her to keep an eye on Damian to make sure he gets the job done.

Several hours later, Kali is hanging in the backyard under a tree enjoying the cool day and letting her mind get some rest after her first real experience of playing Magic. The guys, on the other hand, are still inside the house and beginning to think why their comrade would send someone so green to them in the first place.

"It doesn't make much sense," Jesse thinks out loud as Nick is still going through the girl's very good deck. "Why would Willie send her to us? It's not like he couldn't teach her how to play."

"As mysterious as he is," Jesse starts into his answer to Nick's curiosity, "I think there's more to her than meets the eye. I mean, if she somehow summoned Akroma and defeated those bird soldiers then she might be another wizard. She might not be aware of it."

"What if Willie knew that but he didn't have the time to work with her so he sent her here to learn how everything works? After all, we did teach him."

"First we need to know if any of this is even true. We'll have to test her." Nick pulls out his deck and searches for a creature that would serve their purpose nicely. A couple of seconds and he pulls out a green creature called Blastoderm. "This will prove if she is indeed a wizard or not."

"Are you nuts?" Jesse pleaded with him not to do it. "I know you want to test her but not scare her half to death nor scar her for life. Try something a bit less scary."

"It's the only way and you know that." Nick proceeds to channel his mana power and after a few seconds, summons the creature from a green circle on his right side and orders it to attack Kali but don't hurt her as she's being tested. The creature nods in agreement and phases into the backyard and growls fiercely getting the girl's attention and snapping her out of her train of thought.

"What's that thing," she says in a panic. The boys remained in the house out of sight to see how she handles it. She tries to circle around the creature only to be cut off. She backs up and cringes as the Blastoderm charges in for an attack. Jesse becomes concerned as Nick told it not to harm her. Just then, a white flash comes out of nowhere and standing there was no other than Akroma as she flings the creature back towards the back door. Seeing this confirms what the guys had originally thought.

"Blastoderm, stop and return," Nick calls out as he and Jesse walk out into the backyard and Kali opens her eyes to see the guys. She wasn't happy to say the least.

"Are you two crazy unleashing that nightmare after me?" she asked getting up furious. "What did I do to deserve that?"

"Congrats, you passed," Nick responded as he pet his creature a job well done.

"Passed what?"

"The wizard trial," Jesse confirmed as he came alongside Nick with a Murasa Pyromancer he had summoned. "You definitely are a wizard which makes sense why Willie sent you here. If you need more proof, just look to your right." She does and she gets a real shock when she gazes upon her favorite creature in Akroma, Angel of Wrath. "I take it that wasn't the first time she's been summoned in reflex."

"If you put it that way," she answers confused. "So I'm one of these wizards?" They both nod in confirming as she continued. "Then that means both of you must be wizards too?"

"Silly us we haven't introduced ourselves. I'm Jesse and I'm the red wizard who specializes in destruction decks. This is Nick who's the black wizard and leader of the group who specializes in discard decks."

"Obviously you need to learn how to control your mana power then you can do what we do and then some," Nick confirmed with a smile on his face.

"Now that I know all of this is real, I guess I'll join your group so what do I have to do first."

"First we'll teach you how to generate your mana aura so you could tap into that power willingly. Then we'll show you how to use that power to actually do what we did and summon creatures and play other spells."

"Now I'm beginning to see why Willie sent me here in the first place."

"He probably knew you were a wizard when you two met some time ago. Not having the time or maybe the experience needed to help you, he sent you to us. He would know because he's one too."

"What makes him unique is that he came to us and got into the game himself," Nick confirmed as the three returned their creatures back to their cards."

As the conversation continued, out of sight from the three wizards, Misty's servant Damian watched with intent as he surveyed the situation and began contemplating his plan of attack against the two powerful wizards. Not too far from him and out of his line of sight was Matilda keeping an eye on him to make sure the job got done or to return his body if he's killed by any chance. As the afternoon dragged on, Kali would find out just how dangerous life as a wizard is going to get.


	3. The Hidden Spirit

_Magic the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 3: The Hidden Spirit

As the afternoon dragged on, Nick and Jesse observed Kali sat Indian style on the shaded back porch of Nick's house in a meditative stance. Within three minutes of meditating, she managed to generate a small white aura around herself and has maintained that for over two hours. The two wizards were amazed that she has maintained that small amount of aura for that length of time without rest.

"I can't believe she already has some limited control over her mana power," Jesse says softly amazed as he and Nick look on in approval. "It's not much that'll hold up in our kind of battles, but it's something none the less."

"I have to agree with you on that one," Nick responds just as softly trying to keep their voices down as Kali continues to concentrate. "We'll show her how to generate more of it as she gets used to feeling the energy around her. I believe she has more power than both of us."

"That's coming out of left field. The only other person you said that about was Willie and he's developed nicely into a powerful force for our team. I know we can do the same for her."

"Only thing is that she needs tons of work that he didn't. His aura was naturally strong and developed at a faster rate than what we have to do with her. I just hope that we get the chance to do so."

As their conversation continued, Kali's aura began to develop a little more than what she had at the beginning. It wasn't much in the way of improvement but she was getting used to feeling her own natural energy and the energy of what was around her. Eventually, she tires down and drops her aura but still feels the energy around her as she stands and stretches.

"Feel any different?" Nick asked as she finished stretching and loosening up.

"More connected to the energy but other than that nothing out of the ordinary," she responds with a smile on her face. "I was trying to see if I could expand my aura and increase its power but no dice."

"You did well for your first meditation session," Jesse shares as the three of them go inside for refreshments. "I can tell you were trying to feel our mana energies as well am I right?"

"Exactly. I can somewhat sense your auras but its real faint to me right now. I still can't recognize one aura from another yet. Plus my aura is weak compared to what you two can do."

"It'll come with time ok?"

"I know that. Right now I just want to rest."

"That's a good idea," Nick responded as they showed the young lady out. "Don't want you going into mental exhaustion after one session. Just hang for a while and in about an hour or so we'll go at again, ok?"

"That sounds good."

On the outskirts of Nick's family property, Damian maintains his distance keeping an eye on them waiting for his opportunity to strike at the unsuspecting wizards. Getting restless, he knew he couldn't just strike at any moment as he had to wait until the time was right before he made his move allowing him time to get the creatures he would use for the assault. He was a green/black player with a penchant for destroying players' decks with sudden death spells and overwhelming them with shear power. Not too far out of his line of sight still hanging around was Matilda doing what Misty told her to do in watch the battle and report on what happened.

Early evening set in as Kali resumed her meditation session trying to expand on what she had learned through her first session earlier in the day. Not having much success at first, she was content on just building her mana aura the best she could. In the nearby woods, Damian finally decided it was the time to strike and used his mana aura to summon a huge Enormous Baloth – a 7/7 green creature that takes no prisoners. The amount of mana used to summon that creature actually got Kali's attention completely oblivious from the guys.

"Guys," Kali says seriously getting their attention as they were going through their cards. "I know I'm new at this but I'm picking up a surge of energy somewhere in the woods near here."

"Can you tell where it came from?" Jesse asks as he focuses his aura trying to pick up whatever it was that she sensed.

"Not too sure but I can try and feel for it," she responded and focuses again trying to relocate where the surge came from. After a minute of feeling it there came several more spikes of energy. "Feels like another wizard just summoned about six creatures and they're all . . . headed this way!"

"Oh crap they found us," Nick cries out as he and Jesse rapidly build up their mana auras getting ready for a fight headed straight towards them.

"Great work Kali," Jesse says quickly helping her up from her stance. "Let us handle this."

"Who found you and handle what?" she asked wanting to know what was going on.

"No time to explain but here's the short version. There are good wizards and there are bad wizards. It is said that some of the bad ones belong to some group but it's just a rumor. Besides you, Willie and a few others, no one knows about our group or where we meet –" He is cut off by six beasts appearing from the tree line near the house including the Enormous Baloth, an Elvish Aberration, a Zombie Raptor, a Gluttonous Zombie, a Smokespew Invoker, and a Wirewood Guardian. The one who casts the creature spells, Damian, steps out from behind the baloth and stares down the three wizards.

"Well, what do we have here," Damian smirks with arrogance as he approaches the three wizards. "Looks like two wizards ready for a fight and a newbie scared witless."

"Kali," Jesse turns to her as he and Nick prepare to summon monsters, "you're not ready for something like this yet so hang back and watch how we take care of trespassers like him."

"You don't have to tell me twice," she confirms his statement and heads to the patio that was high and out of the way to watch the battle and learn how to manage herself in battle.

"Ready to kick some tail?" Nick asked as he focuses his mana and summoned his Blastoderm and a Fangren Pathcutter. "This looks like a drag-out brawl."

"All set and ready to go," Jesse responded summoning his Murasa Pyromancer along with a Chartooth Cougar and two Avarax.

The battle begins as the creatures charge one another and go hand to hand in some cases and it didn't take long for the carnage to add up. Jesse's pyromancer was quickly defeated causing him some pain but that would be nothing after he gets knocked out by the Gluttonous Zombie causing his other creatures to disappear. Kali, watching the battle from the patio, becomes concerned about Jesse and started roaming through her green/white deck to see if there was anything she could use to help the boys. She had no idea how to use the cards in the matter the battling wizards were but she felt like she couldn't stand by and watch them get rolled over like this. The whole time she's scanning her deck, she managed to flare up what little aura she had managed to generate earlier in the day.

"Yes," she smiled to herself as she revealed her Day of Judgement card from the middle of her deck. This card destroys all creatures regardless of who has what out. "This should work if I knew how to do it." She looks back at the battle and sees Nick focusing his mana aura into his card and uses a Grab the Reigns to take control of the Smokespew Invoker and having it spew its smoke towards Damian's creatures. Not taking that laying down, he casts a Confound to counter Nick's card and regain control of the invoker. "So that's how they do it," she whispers to herself. Seeing this, Kali tries to focus what mana power she does have into her card so she could try to help. She feels her energy pouring into her card until she felt ready to unleash it. "I hope I did this right and it works," she whispers to herself as she stands up. She turns to the battle and after taking a huge gulp to swallow the nerves she takes the leap of faith. "I cast Day of Judgement!" As her voice rings out, Damian's and Nick's attention quickly turned to the young wizard in training. Streaks of white light come from the card and engulf all the summoned creatures destroying all of them in one swift burst of light. Afterwards, she grabbed the handrail for balance not used to the after drain with a huge smile on her face in satisfaction of her work.

"Well done," was all Nick could say with a shocked smile and gives a thumbs-up in approval of clearing the backyard of all those creatures and possibly saving his life. She nods in approval trying to maintain her balance as most of her mana was used in that spell. At that moment, Jesse regains consciousness and sees that everything has been wiped out and Damian is not happy.

"You little wench," he snarls looking in Kali's direction as he pulls out another card and channels his mana aura into it. "You are _so_ going to pay for that." He smiles an evil smile as he casts Fiery Temper and attacked the weakened girl knocking her out cold. "That's for wiping out my creatures."

"Kali!" Nick shouts in fear as he runs over to check to make sure she's still breathing as Jesse follows him to check on her.

"Why was she targeted in the first place," Jesse asks getting his bearings on what's happened in the last few minutes. "We told her to let us handle the battle and she just watches."

"She saw you get knocked out," Nick answered relieved she was ok just out like a light. "I was about to get steamrolled by that guy's creatures so I guess she went through her deck, managed to use what little mana she had and cast Day of Judgement to wipe everything out. Then he got mad and knocked her out. Guess you can say that she gave us another chance to beat this guy not to mention she saved my life."

"She's courageous. Figuring out how to use her mana like that, she's definitely something to be reckoned with. Now let's finish this thing for her since she gave us this chance." They recollect themselves and went down the steps to the ground where Damian had summoned new creatures including Wirewood Savage, Tel-Jilad Archers, and summoned up three Beast tokens by casting Hunting Pack.

"Now let me see you deal with all of this without your little student over there," he smirked looking at Kali who just started stirring after getting hit with that last attack.

"New plan," Jesse motions to Nick as he contemplated what to do about this guy. "I'll go after him and you take care of the creatures. We got to end this for Kali's sake."

"I'm with you so let's get to it." Nick immediately casts Profane Prayers to deal with the archers and three copies of Pull Under to deal with the beast tokens. Jesse casts Scorching Flesh and goes after Damian who takes a nasty hit to the upper arm but that would be an afterthought when Jesse also casts Magma Jet and for a surprise twist casts a powered up Urza's Rage which would've dealt enough damage to finish the invader off but Damian responded just in time by countering the Magma Jet with Hindering Touch. Still that left him barely alive and Jesse almost out of mana power so he falls back. Nick wipes out the creatures and stare Damian down wondering what his next move will be.

"You think it will be that easy?" he smirks and begins to channel his mana again and this time summoned five unstoppable creatures: Another Enormous Baloth, Avatar of Might, Regenerate on himself to heal some of his wounds, Reckless Wurm, Vastwood Gorger, and Siege Wurm.

"Oh man we're screwed," Nick says feeling their energy dropping rapidly as this battle continues to drag on. "We're almost out of energy and soon we'll be maxed out."

"We've got to finish this guy before we tap out or else we're finished."

Before Nick could answer, the avatar took a swipe with its claws knocking both guys back with both of them barely able to stay on their feet. "You guys don't stand a chance against me. I'll finish you off with just one snap of my –"

"Stop!" a voice yells out of nowhere. Quickly the guys look around and on the porch was what looked like Kali but her hair and eyes were different. When once she had brunette hair, now it was blonde with green streaks and her brown eyes had become straight green with no sign of a typical eye should look like. At her sides are both Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Akroma, Angel of Fury. "You know what happens when someone knowingly lets the power of mana overwhelm you. The power goes to your head and you lose control eventually losing your mind and then your life."

"Where do you go off preaching to me about power," Damian responded in a rage as he had his wurms attack.

"You've become consumed by your own power and now your fate is in my hands," the one speaking through Kali responded as she casts Pacifism on all of his creatures and then another Day of Judgement to eliminate them completely. She also added a Cease Fire to stop him from playing anything else as both Akromas calmly flew toward him. "For knocking out Kali and hurting the guys, your punishment is death!" she snapped her fingers and in the blink of an eye Damian was no more. She turns to the guys who are still in shock over what they are seeing. Holding her hands out, she heals the boys and regenerates their auras before sitting with them near where Kali was knocked out.

"Who are you?" Nick asked as they sat down after the carnage of the battle to talk to the one who saved their lives.

"I take it you're Kali," Jesse concluded looking the woman over and noticing she has the same features as the one they were training.

"You're half right," she responded before continuing, "my real name is Elena but don't tell Kali about me yet until I talk to her myself."

"So where did you come from?" Nick asked again confused about the whole thing,

"I think that since she's a part of Kali, she must've came before she was born," Jesse concluded. "Makes sense she could come here since we can summon creatures from the Magic realm."

"You're right," Elena confirmed Jesse's theory. "I was dormant for a long time as it wasn't time for her to accept me yet. I was awakened when she cast Day of Judgement early in the battle. After she was knocked out, I was allowed to take over for a bit but I can't stay for too long."

"Understandable since you used a ton of energy to kill whoever that guy was."

"I think he was a member of that group known as the Crimson Fighters." The three looks at Nick shocked at what he said. "I'll explain it to you and Kali at a later time."

"I've never heard of them. It'll be interesting to hear about them. My power is starting to weaken so I'll take my leave." Elena said as she changes back into Kali and she becomes aware of what was going on. "What happened?" she asks as she held her head in pain as she tried to move. "I get hit by a bus or something?"

"Let's just say someone helped us get rid of that guy you picked up on a while ago," Jesse assures her as the three of them go inside and drink sodas. "Good work on casting that spell saving Nick."

"Thanks. I saw how you were channeling your energy so I gave it a shot. Wasn't ready for the side effects though," she lets out a chuckle as she finishes her statement.

"That's something we'll teach you about later on," Nick affirmed as they wrapped up for the night. "The after drain can be gnarly for first timers. It left you wide open to take that hit. For now you should be getting on home as it's getting late. We'll work with you some more and maybe Willie could see how far you've come."

"Sounds good guys and see you tomorrow." She heads out the door and towards her house on the other side of town.

"What a night," Nick says as he sees their new trainee off. "I'm ready for sleep. You're staying over?"

"Yeah. Thanks man and good night."

Back at Misty's place outside of town, Matilda had arrived after witnessing that battle that claimed Damian's life as she dragged his remains into the main room where Misty was sitting watching her flat-screen TV.

"I see you've returned," she mentions turning around and seeing her servant's lifeless body changes her facial expression turning it into pure anger. "By the looks of it, Damian has been slain so tell me what happened. All of it."

"As you see, Damian is no more. But it wasn't the red and black wizards that ended his life. It was the new girl and she was accompanied by two Akromas. They struck him down in the night after the girl changed forms."

"Changed forms?" Misty curiously asked Matilda who was unsure herself of what she saw but described it best she could.

"She stayed out of the battle due to her inexperience until the red wizard was knocked out. Then she searched her deck and unleashed a Day of Judgement angering Damian to the point where he knocked her out. Shortly after that the girl changed forms or something and killed him just like that."

"That's interesting. Now I want to you to see what power this girl really has. Challenge her to a duel and battle her. If she's as weak as she appears then just kill her and take what mana she does have and move on. If it comes to it, kill her family too but don't consider that option until you report back in with me. Be gone with you as I want to go to sleep and take that disgusting thing with you. I'll be waiting for your report."

"Yes my lady." She drags the body out of her house as she figures what kind of deck to use against her mysterious foe.

"That girl is a wonder in her own right. The question is; though, is that spirit who I think it is? If so, then I need to get rid of her as soon as possible. Things are getting interesting."


	4. Chaos Unleashed

_Magic the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 4: Chaos Unleashed

The sun peaked over the horizon the morning after the huge battle in Nick's backyard that saw Kali cast her first spell saving Nick from a possible death. The sun rises over the horizon to a whole new day. Nick's backyard was still scarred from last night's battle and the events played through Nick's mind as he lays awake in his bed like a never ending movie. The way the battle went down, Jesse getting knocked out and even Kali after she saved him. Then that weird transformation she had into her alter-ego Elena still freaked him out. He gets out of bed and after getting dressed and seeing that Jesse was still asleep, he made his way to the kitchen and got some breakfast and just sat in the quiet living room in silence until Jesse came in and sat next to him.

"Still smarting about last night?" Jesse asks as he sits down with a glass of juice looking just as miserable as Nick was and then some. "I know the feeling as I was out cold for some of it."

"I can't figure out how that guy got such powerful creatures," Nick asked as he sulked down in disappointment at how hopeless that whole situation was last night.

"We're lucky that Kali was able to do what she did to give us another chance to beat that guy. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't be here right now."

"Let's not think about that right now. Let's recover from last night and enjoy this quiet day. We need to regroup and teach Kali how to properly use her mana with her cards without suffering severe after drain. The faster she can start properly helping us the better chance we stand of living through another one of those battles."

"I know about that and you're right. Once Willie gets back from wherever he might be I'll tell about that group I mentioned to you and Elena last night – the Crimson Fighters."

"Who are they anyway?"

"All I'll say right now is that they are a group of underground wizards that suck players into duels where the loser typically pays with his or her life. I'll explain more once we meet up with our other two players."

On the other side of town, Kali had the sun in her bedroom window as she was meditating as she always did in the mornings, but this morning it was different as she flared up her mana aura safely without anyone knowing what she was really doing. Closing her eyes as she focused on increasing her own energy, she is mysteriously pulled deep into her own subconscious leaving her body on her bed in that stance with her mana aura flaring up brightly.

"Where the heck am I?" she wondered as she walked around in what seemed like a white mist with green sparkles around her. She wonders around until she enters a flatland area with a small hut at the end of this path. She enters only to find out that the place is bare as a bone. After looking around, she decides to head out only to find Elena standing in the doorway startling her.

"I've been waiting for you," Elena says as the girls sit in opposing chairs that have materialized in the dreamscape. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Elena and I'm the other half of your personality."

"It's obvious you know me. What is this all about anyway?"

"You awakened me when you cast that spell last night. After you were hit with that spell, I was the one that won that battle the three of you were involved in last night by killing your attacker."

"Why did you have to kill him? It makes no sense to do that to anyone for any reason."

"In those kinds of battles, killing your opponent may be your last resort but against evil wizards and such, it may be the only course of action. Kill them before they can kill you. You'll know when to do what."

"That makes sense given what went down last night. That guy looked like he was out to kill."

"Indeed. May I ask why you were meditating so early in the day and why did you have your mana aura flared up if you don't mind me asking?"

"I always meditate in the mornings to get my mind right for the day. Since I learned how to flare up my aura, I wanted to see if I could use that sense of calmness to increase my aura power and become stronger."

"I know you want to become stronger and you will. Unfortunately it's not time for us to officially connect yet. I wanted to get to know who you are as a person. Plus your own skills have to develop some first. It's time for us to part as you have things to do today."

"You're right. I have to get some new cards for my deck and change it from green/white to white/red. Figured that's what you would want. I might even make it all three colors in green/white/red."

"We share a mind you know. I'd rather you have the angel of fury in your deck along with your Akroma card so that way they'd both be at our disposal – once you get used to using your mana."

"You're right Elena. There's still so much I want to know about you."

"There will come a time where all of your questions will be answered. Now get on with your day. We will talk more, later." Kali nods as she returns to her body just in time as she hears her father and younger sister walk in from a morning at the mall. She drops her aura, gathers her saved cash and meets up with her family before she heads out to the mall for some serious shopping.

In the basement of Misty's house on her end of town, members of the Crimson Fighters gather up for a meeting and to induct some new recruits. Among those to be inducted were seven of the girls from Carson Central High who were singled out by the Aven Warhawks when they were turned loose on the school. They had been tricked in going there so they could be brainwashed into serving her purposes.

"Now for my new recruits," she mentioned as she has her potentials dawn the mark of the group on the back of their hands. "Now that you have that mark you now serve me and only me, understand?"

"Yes, Madam Misty," the group says in a trance-like tone of voice. "We live to serve you."

"It's time for the city of Varayan to know who really runs this town. All of you take these dark decks and send this town into chaos. Scare everyone and anyone who decides to get in your way then kill them by any means necessary. As for me, I'm taking city hall for myself. By the way, if you run into any of these two wizards," she shows them the pictures of Nick and Jesse as she goes on, "they are to be eliminated on sight but don't take them lightly. There might be others like them out there now go!"

"Yes my lady," the crowd says as they all head out in different directions to start creating havoc on the city. As they left, she calls up Matilda to check on her progress and to see if she's dealt with Kali yet.

"Not yet my lady," Matilda responds to her leader's question. "She was gone when I got here this morning. Not to worry though, I'll deal with her once she returns. No sense looking for her with all hell breaking loose on the city."

"Proceed with the alternative we discussed," Misty ordered her most loyal servant. "Once she hears about the chaos in the city, she'll rush home to make sure her family is safe and that's when you'll take care of her."

"It will be done my lady."

Varayan's Trailview Mall was the busiest mall in the city. Almost everyone hung out there at one point in the day for something as small as lunch or even a hat from one of the clothing stores. The place was favored by wizards from all walks for its card shop. That place had cards from every Magic set in existence. Some cards are more expensive than others. Players also came here to sell some of their older cards as well with more recent cards being cheaper and cards in good condition costing more. The pricing process was rather complicated to sort out. That shop was Kali's first stop as she arrived in the mall to try and acquire the cards necessary to change her deck to a three-color deck.

"What a line," she says looking from the back of the line that snaked around the corner. "This is just great. I have too much to do today than wait in this line for a few hours."

"Eh, it won't be that long," a voice says from behind getting her attention. She turns around and sees none other than her friend Willie who had returned to town earlier that day. Needless to say he was just as surprised as well to see his friend in front of him. "Good to see you Kali. I see you're doing well."

"When did you get back?" she says with a smile on her face as the two wizards share an embrace and the line began to move a little at a time. "So much has happened since you left."

"I got back into town this morning before sunrise. Judging by your mana aura, you've grown a bit since I last saw you."

"Yeah, Jesse and Nick have been training me on building my aura. We were supposed to meet up again today to do more training. Maybe you can come and see for yourself?"

"I'm already there. Can't wait to see how far you've come in such a short time. So why exactly are you in the card shop line anyway?"

"It's hard to explain but let's just say I got an idea to change my deck to a red/white/green deck so I could use both of my Akroma cards in the same deck. I guess I can tell you I have another spirit inside of me."

"You're talking about Elena aren't you?" She looks shocked as he said that. "I know all about her and you. I do have a knack for gathering information you know. She was one of the three reasons that I was out of town after that day at school. I'll explain more when we meet with Nick and Jesse who are both here also."

"That's sure is interesting. Now I may ask what exactly are you doing in this line?" The line started to move and now they were the next two as the one in front of them tries to trade three of his older cards for something more recent.

"Well, I'm looking for new morph creatures for my deck and a few other cards for my collection. Look we're next." They walk up to the counter and there stands a short man of African descent with braided hair and the brightest smile that can light up a room. He notices who's in front of the counter and his smile got even bigger.

"Well," he says with a light raspy voice, "If it isn't my favorite young wizard and you've got a friend with you today. Heard you went out of town a while back."

"Yeah I was," Willie responded leaning on the counter making small talk then turning his head to Kali as he went on. "Michael, this is Kali who's the newest member of the group I'm with," she nods and the two shake hands. "So let's not keep your customers waiting ok? What morphs you got in stock so I can take a look at them. While you're at it, let her look at whatever red cards you have in stock. She's trying to turn her green/white into a white/green/red deck."

"Anything for my favorite wizard," he responds getting a stack of morph cards for him and a stack of red cards for Kali as he turns to her and hands her that red stack. "Any friend of yours is a friend of mine."

"Thanks," she responded as she started to look through the stack as her aura gained a pale white glow.

In the residential areas of the city, block by block buildings were being set ablaze as Misty's ever growing group of followers were following her orders to wreak havoc in the city. Citizens were frantically trying to gather what they could and get out of town to avoid injury. Creatures big and small were killing people foolish enough to get in the way. A group of these individuals went down a street only to encounter resistance from a group of wizards that typically hung out with Nick and Jesse at school. They had gotten together when they saw what was happening and tried with everything they had to defend their neighborhood. Ultimately, with the powers that the minions were packing, they didn't stand a chance. All but one of the defenders was killed, and the one that managed to get away was badly hurt. Making their way towards the shopping district, the followers unleashed even more creatures and started casting spells such as Feeding Frenzy and Smother on ordinary people.

Misty had a group with her as she easily made her way into city hall and demanded to see the town's mayor at once.

"Sorry miss," the desk clerk said, "With the town in chaos, the mayor has refused to see anyone at this time."

"Sorry to you too," Misty responded to what the clerk said as she snapped her fingers and one of the recruits she had with her casts Waste Away to kill the clerk. "I'm in a hurry to take over the city." The security guard that saw what happened sent a call to everyone else in the building to get to the mayor's door and guard it with your life. Misty tore through the building like lightning killing anyone in her path until she got to the mayor's office. Ten guards stood between her and the door to the city. It was not even a fight as Misty herself casts Volcanic Eruption to blow a path to the door killing eight of the ten guards. Calmly and with an evil smile, she enters the office to face off with the mayor of the town.

Willie and Kali walk out of the card shop satisfied with the cards they've acquired for their respective decks. Willie picked up a Shaper Parasite to surprise his opponents along with a shape shifter called Primal Plasma and a Serendib Sorcerer. For emergencies, he also acquired Psychic Trance to have his wizards be able to counter spells just in case. He also acquired another wizard card in Magus of the Arena to force a fight between one of his creatures and one of his opponent's creatures in extreme situations. He basically tuned up his four-color morph deck (red/green/blue/white) into a real threat. Kali got what she needed to make her red/white/green deck by picking up a Prodigal Pyromancer, Thundersong Trumpeter, Rally the Righteous, Skyknight Legionnaire, and to surprise her opponents, she picked up a legendary creature in Rith, the Awakener along with Rith's Charm. She also picked up a Thornscape Battlemage and a Thornscape Apprentice. For an added bonus, she also picked up Lavamancer's Skill to help the wizards she acquired.

"At least we're satisfied," Willie spoke up as the two admire their latest acquisitions to their evolving decks. "All we have to do now is meet up with Nick and Jesse."

"I can't wait to get back to training," Kali responded happily as she sees the two other wizards walking up. "Oh look. There they are." The four wizards meet up and shake hands and sit to lunch and start discussing everything that happened in the last few days.

"So where the hell were you anyway?" Nick asked trying to get some answers from their friend about his recent absence.

"Sorry for not telling you guys where I was," Willie responded pulling out four wrist communicators for the group. "By the way, these are for all of us to stay in touch and to keep your decks right where you can get them." He hands the gang four strange devices that act like a wristwatch and a video communicator. The display screen shows what creatures are being used and it stats. Also, it's connected to the satellite for TV purposes to keep up with what's going on with anyone at anytime. A box-like structure behind the screen is where the decks go. Nick got the black one, Kali got white, Jesse got the red one and Willie of course took the blue one.

"Thanks for these," Jesse says as he puts it on his left wrist and it looks rather cool as he puts his deck into the slot behind the display screen. That way we won't have to hold our cards when we're in battle. "Wish we had these last night that's for sure."

"Not a problem," Willie gracefully responded as he kept going. "The reason I was gone after that day at school was that I went to investigate some rumors that someone e-mailed me about several weeks ago. I went to the town of Rovenia to check out two rumors I heard regarding potential sorcerers."

"You mean players like us?" Kali asked with a curious look on her face as she listened to her friend's tale.

"Yeah but according to the legends they're supposed to be ten times more powerful than the strongest of wizards. According to what I heard when I got there, a witness saw what was believed to be Karona, the False God talking to a group of players believed to have come from all around the surrounding areas. Some might have been from here."

"Any idea what Karona said to them?" Nick asked as he took a bit out of a burger he had nearly finished. "I'm curious why so many players would be gathered in one place like that."

"What's even stranger was that the gathering place was in a wide open area according to the witness." The group looks at him in shock as he continues on. "So, to learn about what happened at that meeting, I summoned an Information Dealer, a Rummaging Wizard as well as a Lurking Informant to gather any and all information pertaining to the rumor of Karona's presence. As they went off on their search, I checked out the second rumor I read by tracking down the person that sent me that e-mail that brought me out there. Turns out there's a prophecy involved."

"Prophecy?" Jesse asks listening intently on what Willie was telling them. "Why would that have anything to do with Karona's supposed presence?"

"Not too sure about that but I did learn that so called prophecy might have something to do with Kali." She looks at him wide-eyed in disbelief when she heard that.

"Any idea what it said," she asked wondering why she was involved in this. "Is that why you sent me to Nick and Jesse then?"

"Hold on a sec before you freak out ok?" Willie came back calming her down from her shock. "The whole thing was written in another language and the thing seemed cryptic if you asked me. All I got out of it was [_The one that carries the burden of two of the same shall unleash the power of the sorcerers._] My guess is that it might pertain to your Akromas that you have in your deck. But then again who knows? The whole thing is as old as the Egyptian pyramids so who knows if it's true or not. I do have a copy of the prophecy that I'm still trying to figure out. Like I said, the whole thing was cryptic and didn't make much sense so don't worry about it."

"I don't know whether to be relieved or worried," Kali said sulking from the news. "As you said however I'm not going to worry about it. So what did your wizards and that rogue find out."

"One by one they reported in as I left from where I was and here's what they find out. Someone managed to summon Karona to that area and brainwashed six individuals from around the area to go there. Then she had them go to their hometowns and establish fighting groups that would build up the power that would be needed to bring Karona from whatever hell she's in to our plane. From what my wizards gathered, there are six major groups around the country that have been formed. That's all I managed to find out."

"So you don't think that guy the three of us fought last night was a member of one of those groups?" Kali asked Nick and Jesse regarding the events of last night."

"I might think so but I really don't know?" Nick answered looking puzzled by something Willie had said. "I think he was a member of the group I've recently heard about recently called the Crimson Fighters."

"Who are they?" Willie shot back hearing about this for the first time.

"They are a group of underground wizards who are downright nasty. The thing about them is that they have no problem killing people to gain more power. I went up against one last year and was lucky to escape with my life. I had that feeling again last night until Elena came along."

"By the way," Willie remembered turning to Kali, "Elena is involved in this prophecy as well. Like I said before, it involves the two becoming one or something like that. I'll explain it more after I get it translated."

As the conversation continued between the wizards, at city hall Misty was preparing to make her big debut as new leader of the city which has turned chaotic from all of the monster attacks. The only thing on her mind at that time was if her guys had found the other two wizards and did Matilda take care of the one she was supposed to. Not considering what's up with them, she made her way to the balcony where she was welcomed by her brainwashed followers. As she holds up her hand, she has a double-axed mark showing she's under the control of someone else. Also, a surge of power takes place taking over all electronic devices – even the wrist communicators that the wizards were wearing in the mall.

"What the . . ." Willie frantically noticed as he tried to change the frequency on his to no avail. The others tried to do the same ending with the same result. That's when Misty begins to speak.

"Citizens of Varayan. My name is Misty McClain and I now run this town." She starts cheering and laughing maniacally as she continues on scaring Kali and the wizards. "Those who choose to go against me will be eliminated – no excuses. Now I'll issue my first order as leader. All of my followers of the Crimson Fighters heed my call. These two wizards are to be eliminated no matter what the cost." Her hands glow brightly as images of both Nick and Jesse appear in her hands and on the screens around the city and the mall. "They had a hand in the death of one of my servants and I don't want them interfering with the next step in my plan which will be handled at a later time. That is my wish so shall it be!" The crowd cheers as she walks back inside to take a seat.

"Well," Nick mutters stunned as he and the others look on at what's going on, "she's subtle. We're seriously screwed."

"Not to mention she just turned half of the city's wizards against us. We're going to catch hell getting to our houses now."

"I know that girl," Kali stunningly says getting the attention of the guys. "That was Misty. She was a friend of mine who got me into this game when she disappeared a few days before that attack on the school. When she came back, she was all changed with a mark on her arm?"

"What mark?" Willie shot back realizing something. "What did it look like?"

"Something like two axes laying together forming an 'X' or something like that. Why ask?"

"This is bad. She might be one of Karona's servants. That mark is a sign of one of her underlings. We seriously need a . . ." He is cut off by loud screams coming from down the corridor and coming up fast was a whole heard of Titanic Bolvox running over everything in their path. From the ceiling, several Screeching Buzzards break in through the roof window and makes a beeline for the wizards who manage to duck out of the way. From the other end of the corridor, a heard of Golgari Thugs came down the opposite way making their way towards the wizards.

"Looks like we're going to half to fight our way out," Nick suggested as the four of them flared up their mana auras with Kali's being a bit weaker than the other three.

"And attract more attention to us," Jesse responded holding Nick back from doing something reckless. "That's not a very wise idea. We need to protect the people in here and get out of here."

"Jesse's right," Willie confirmed as he stood next to Kali as the four of them figured out a plan. "Besides, several dozen people have already been killed in the last three minutes. The main objective is to get the innocents somewhere safe."

"It wouldn't do us any good to engage this many enemies anyway," Kali added to the discussion as the guys agreed to a plan. "I may be the newest to all of this but even I know that taking on that many enemies at one time even with the four of us would be suicide."

"That's exactly right. Our objective is a simple one. Get the people that are unhurt somewhere safe and get the injured somewhere where the medical personnel can get to them. Then we meet up at the front doors of the mall in exactly thirty minutes. Do _not_ use your power unless it's your absolute last resort! Kali and I have the south end of the mall and Nick and Jesse takes the north end." The gang agrees on the plan and split off to try and help whoever they can find a safe place or placing the injured somewhere they can get help quickly.

On the south end of the mall, Kali and Willie were checking store to store looking to see if there were any survivors from the attack. Avoiding the enemies as they searched for them, they spotted about twenty people in about three of the stores and moved them to a place that wasn't touched and kept on looking for survivors. After twenty-five minutes, they headed towards the front doors like they agreed. Nick and Jesse had about the same amount of luck as they searched the north end of the mall and found more dead bodies than survivors. They had a harder time sneaking around but they managed without Nick getting too antsy to attack the enemies. Exactly thirty minutes later, the gang all meet up at the front doors as agreed.

"Everybody ok," Jesse asks as they were about to leave the mall. As everyone nods that they're ok, the exit the mall to a scene out of a disaster movie. Half the city was burning and sirens were going off everywhere as emergency personnel were going in and out of the mall treating the injured. In the skies were Death's-Head Buzzards and Screeching Buzzards mixed in with a few Dragonstalkers. The four of them stood in fear and amazement as they pondered what they were to do now.

"Any ideas," Kali asked realizing she hasn't checked in with her family since she left home earlier in the day. "I need to go home and check on my family and make sure they're alright with all of this chaos going down."

"I'm with you there," Willie agreed with her as he needed to do the same thing. "I need to check on my folks as well. What about you guys?"

"It would be nice to see that they're ok," Nick responded wondering the same as the rest of his group. "With the whole city a battle zone, it's going to be rough sledding just getting to our homes."

"I feel the same way," Jesse also responded confirming that he was also concerned about his family as well. "So Willie, what's the plan now."

"Looks like we're going to half to do what Nick said earlier after listening to Misty's rant." The group looks to him as he continues his plan. "We'll have to fight our way home first and then out of town. This city has become dangerous for good wizards like us. We'd have to watch our backs everywhere we went for fear of being jumped."

"Can't argue with you there," Kali agreed looking at the dark burning landscape around them. "We need to get going as we can't stay here."

"Ok gang here's the plan. First we need to get home and see if we even still have a home and make sure our families are ok. Then we need to pack some clothes, food and other supplies and then get out of this town. Since we'll more likely have to fight to even get there, help any wizard you come across battling the Crimson Fighters. Don't get sucked into an area for too long and attract more opponents. Do what you can and move on. Meet up at my place in two hours. Got it?"

"Yeah," everyone says in unison as the four of them flares up their mana and three of them summons beasts for the trek to their homes: Nick summons his Blastoderm, Jesse summons a Frenetic Raptor, and Willie summons one of his favorite creatures in Venomspout Brackus. Kali decides to go with Willie because those two stay on the same street plus she hasn't learned how to summon creatures yet.

"Kind of forgot that you haven't learned how to summon creatures yet," he says to Kali as she climbs aboard her friend's creature. "Don't worry. He's friendly. I chose him so he can weaken flyers and lowers the chance of us getting hit." He then speaks up to the other two as they set to take off. "Before we all go there's something I need to do first." Willie goes into his collection, channels his mana for a second before summoning Phyrexian Battleflies – one for each of them. "They might not seem like much, but they'll help me keep an eye on you guys in case something happens. Let meet at my place in two hours." The gang all go their separate ways toward their homes.

Jesse was going down one of the suburban streets that led to his house and he saw that the whole place was a wreck. As he approached his house he heard a scream come from across the street. He dismounts his raptor and checks out what it was. It turned out that he was too late to save another wizard who was just killed but his assailant was still there leering over his decaying body as he absorbed the fallen wizard's mana.

"Hey!" Jesse yells getting the minion's attention. Instead of doing something, the dark wizard just fled without incident as he didn't want a fight for some reason. "That was strange." He checks on the player but unfortunately he was dead. Jesse goes on to his house and sees that his family left a note saying that they left town after the chaos started and went to Aldertown to stay out of the chaos. Relieved that his family is ok, he gathers his cards, clothes and other supplies and heads out locking the door. He remounts his raptor and begins the long trek towards Willie's house which was near the downtown area.

Nick's house was basically untouched other than the scorches from last night's battle which were still embedded in the backyard. He gathers his entire card collection, packs him a set of clothes and some snakes before he heads out. He has heard nothing from his family since before the attack at his house. Disappointed, he headed out and remounted his Blastoderm and made his way towards downtown also.

Willie and Kali were blasting everything in sight as they made their way toward their homes that wasn't far from the mall in the downtown area. It seemed as if all of the creatures were heading towards the mall or something.

"How come we're getting all of this fire," Kali asks him as finally reach the street they live on. "Those flyers are relentless in their attacks."

"That's why I summoned this guy," Willie said with a smirk on his face. "His ability to deal damage to any flyer that attacks is exactly why I chose this beast to ride on. Other then the venom he uses to attack them with, he's my favorite one to have for a situation like this. Plus he's a nice boy." Kali just smirks as they arrive at their homes and disembark. "Remember to get what you need and then come right over. As soon as Nick and Jesse get here we're as good as gone."

"Right," she confirms and proceeds to enter her house. Once inside, however, she notices that her family were in the living room bound and tied right in the center of the living room scaring her a bit. She immediately flares her pale white aura which was a little stronger that she was this morning as Matilda comes from the kitchen with an evil smile on her face.

"Well, look who finally came home to check on the family," Matilda smirks as she came into view with her deck in her hand and had a dark red aura around her. "I've been waiting for you little missy."

"Who the hell do you think you are coming here and messing with my family? Coming after me is one thing, but messing with them is crossing the line," she responds getting more furious.

"So what are you going to do about it, hurt me?" she sarcastically says getting more of a rise out of her. "Let's see what you got." She channels her mana and summons a Canyon Minotaur. Kali focuses as best she can while pulling a card from her deck before barely being able to summon her Thornscape Apprentice and has it use its ability to stop her creature before it can make a move. She nearly collapsed again due to the after drain but it wasn't as bad as last night. Within seconds she's up and ready to make another move.

"Is that the best you can do?" Matilda responds before having her creature attack destroying the wizard and hitting her causing extreme pain. "You're too new to this and don't stand a chance. Now say goodbye to your precious family." She has her minotaur slowly walk towards Kali's family and as he's about to decapitate all of them, Kali reaches down deep and manages to cast the spell Pacifism to stop the minotaur in its tracks and then out of shear desperation summons an Elvish Warrior and gave it Muscle Burst and then had it attack and destroy the minotaur.

"You will not . . . lay a finger . . . on my family," Kali said getting more exhausted with every spell she casts as her aura begins to fade. She reaches down and touches the blue button on her communicator ringing up Willie for assistance. Right as she does that, she gets hit with a nasty Fireball from Matilda blowing her back to the wall and knocking her down. Scratching and clawing her way back to her feet, she reaches down deep and with her last gasp of strength, she focuses most of her remaining aura power and summons a Grassland Crusader and uses that to power up her Elvish Warrior and it attacks Matilda who gets knocked down.

"Not too bad there," she says getting back up laughing maniacally. "Now you're getting serious." She focuses her mana and then rapid fire summons four creatures including Brain Gorgers, Sparkmage Apprentice which dealt Kali some damage further exhausting her energy, Giant Scorpion and a Torch Slinger. She had decided to have the black creatures kill her family and with Kali only having two creatures out and too weak to summon anything else and at the point of mental exhaustion, she couldn't really do anything. "Aw, baby wizard too tired to fight? Then say goodbye to your little family." She orders the Brain Gorgers and her Giant Scorpion go after Kali's family once again.

"Stay . . . away from them," she said gasping for air as she fought her way back to her feet and began focusing once again gathering whatever mana she had left and it was not very much. "Not . . . going to give up. Must . . . protect them," she murmured to herself as she tried to find a card that will save her family from certain death.

"Sorry you're not stopping me this time," Matilda said as she casts both Magma Jet and Torrent of Fire to deal Kali enough damage to kill her. Unfortunately, it failed big time as with her last gasp, she casts Gilded Light giving herself shroud against the attacks. Matilda was furious and ordered the immediate death of her family only to find that all four of her creatures were bound by chains. "What happened to my creatures? Who did this?" She looked around the room and saw that Kali had help as Willie, who has his blue aura around him and slipped in about thirty seconds prior, was right behind her having just cast Choking Tethers stopping her creatures in their tracks.

"Funny thing about communicators," he said with a smile as he was leaning against the door holding the card he just used in his hand, "they make excellent alarms when your friends are in trouble." He immediately casts Reward the Faithful healing Kali's injuries allowing her to get to her feet. "Now about you go against me in a fair fight. Unlike our rookie here, I have more than enough juice to deal with someone like you."

"Another time maybe," she answers before returning her creatures and diving through the living room window breaking it right in front of Nick and Jesse who had just arrived at Willie's place next door.

"What's going on?" Jesse yells as they rush to confront the fleeing Matilda. They confront her as Willie came rushing out through the broken window behind her.

"Don't let her get away," he yells back as he comes running up behind her. "She attacked Kali's family forcing her into a duel."

"What?" Nick said disgusting by the woman's behavior. "Then she needs to be taken care of before she escapes back to Misty."

"Wait," Kali calls out as she comes out completely exhausted barely able to stand. She grabs on to Nick as she tries to finish what she was saying. "Let her go. We need to get out of this city. There's no way that Misty is going to know where we're going. As you said, there are five other groups out there."

"Agreed," Willie hesitantly responded as he turns to Misty still surrounded by the four wizards. "You heard her. Run back to your little boss lady with your tails between your legs and send her a message from the four of us. Tell her that all of us will be back to reclaim this town for the good guys."

Matilda just runs off with no hesitation wanting to stay alive. The wizards go back in and untie Kali's family and fill them in on the situation at hand. They agreed that with the city becoming too dangerous and seeing her skills first hand, she would be better off with us and they would find a safe place. The only condition they had is that Kali's little sister, Melanie, was to go with her and she agreed with no hesitation. As darkness set in, the four wizards and climbed onto Willie's Dragon Tyrant to get out of the city with the last being Kali and her sister as they said goodbye to their family. Taking off through the darkening sky they successfully get out of the city without much incident knowing that one day they will return. For now, it was about getting some rest and getting Kali some serious training.

"What a day," Willie mumbles to himself as they fly out of the lights and fire that is Varayan. "Nothing like seeing people get killed to get the blood flowing."

"Especially seeing my family almost die in front of me," Kali lazily said barely able to stay awake after her intense duel with Matilda. "I barely got through that alive."

"Luckily you kept your family safe and that's important. Now we need to rest and get you some training in where you can hold your own in a duel."

Matilda reported in to Misty as darkness set in with bad news.

"Sorry my lady," she said to her leader who was gaining a scowl in her voice. "I failed."

"What happened? Don't hold anything back."

"I challenged the girl like you asked and she has some skill. I was about to kill her when a blue mana wizard came in and saved her."

"There's another wizard? That's just great. Track her down and kill her no matter where they go. That girl has to be eliminated if the master's plans are to succeed."

"Yes my lady."

"Well," Misty grew frustrated at the developments told to her by her servant. "So the wizards are now on the move and grown their numbers. If the master's plans are to succeed, the other groups must be warned about those wizards." She pulls out her cell phone and dials up a number.

"Hello," the male voice on the other end answers.

"Sorry to bother you this late," Misty says with a worry in her face. "But I have some information that you might find interesting." The conversation begins and goes on deep into the night.


	5. Training and The New Target

_Magic the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 5: Training and The New Target

The crew flew in silence through the night sky on the back of Willie's Dragon Tyrant until the city of Varayan disappeared beyond the horizon and they reached a hideaway that was on the road between Varayan and the next town of who knows where. Landing brought an opportunity to get some sleep and for the group to recharge after having to abandon their families and homes. For Kali, having to bring along her sister didn't seem like a bother to her or the group as she was happy to have her along. Entering the well furbished hideout gave solace to the group as it was time to get some much needed sleep.

"Looks like we can crash here for tonight," Jesse says as the gang of five checks out the place and finds places where they'll sleep for the night.

"What is this place?" Kali asks looking around with her little sister Melanie in tow as she seems awestruck by the facility. "I've never heard of a place such as this."

"This is a place where wizards traveling between cities can hang out and rest for a while," Willie responded as he set his things down behind the counter. "This is just one of many places I've set up around the country. So we can hang here for now while we contemplate our next move. For now I say let's get some sleep as we all need it. Tomorrow we'll begin your training and go from there."

"I'm not complaining about that. Peace out everyone."

"Peace," everyone says and they all find a place and soon afterwards fall asleep.

As the night wares on, Kali becomes restless and shortly after midnight gets up, careful not to wake her sister, and makes her way outside to look at the stars. It was a stark contrast for her from 24 hours ago when she was in Nick's backyard playing a role in fighting off a member of the Crimson Fighters. Looking around, she spots Willie doing the same thing just enjoying the cool night air.

"I thought you'd be asleep," he says not even looking in her direction. "Guess you couldn't huh?"

"Read my mind," she responds as she sits beside him enjoying the night sky. "I'm having a hard time sleeping so I though some fresh air would help."

"I know the feeling. Fresh air always seems to help clear your head you know?"

"I hear ya. I'm glad to have my little sister with me. It makes having to leave my family easier knowing you all let me bring her."

"It's cool. Besides, it's easier if she's with us then we all can keep her safe. We'd do anything to make sure any one person is as comfortable as possible."

"Thanks for that. I know that Nick and Jesse are good to be around, but I can't explain it but I feel safest with you."

"Now I know you're being modest. Nick's never been very good at thinking his way out of certain situations so when I came into the game and got sucked into this whole mana duel thing, I sort of became the brains of the operation."

"That's why I'm so thankful," she shyly says as she scoots a little close to him. "I should've thanked you for saving my life earlier tonight."

"I would've done that for anyone who was in trouble. Besides, I knew you were doing ok from feeling your aura. Once you hit that button, I knew you needed me and there I was. I'll always look out for you."

"You want to know something," she asks him getting his attention. "I think I'm starting to grow fond of you."

"I feel the same for you," he says as the two of them look into each other's eyes for a bit before they both turn away in total shyness. Kali had a look of disappointment on her face as Willie faked a cough and started to move. "We'd better get some sleep. You've got training tomorrow." Both of them get up and go back inside and get some sleep.

The next morning, the gang was moving about refreshed and ready for the day's training session. Jesse was reorganizing his deck sitting by the window while Nick had started training with Kali as Willie sat with Melanie as they watch the session with interest.

"I know you've summoned creatures," Nick mentioned as they entered the training area of the hideout. "I can also tell and from what Willie mentioned you're still struggling with the after drain right?"

"Unfortunately," she mentions as she flares up her arua ready to get with the training. "When I got forced into that duel with that witch who had captured my family, I could barely defend them and myself."

"You did keep them alive though," Willie stated with conviction as he sat with Kali's sister Melanie watching the session go down. "It couldn't have been easy for you but you managed to keep them and you alive."

"Yeah I barely survived. Still shows that I have a long way to go."

"You have the power," Nick stated as he flared up his black aura. "All three of us have seen it. That Day of Judgment you cast the other night . . ."

"Seeing you defend your family with heart and determination not to mention your quick reflexes," Willie added as he nodded at her budding skills.

"You didn't waver in defending us once you saw what had happened," Melanie chimed in getting a smile from her older sister. "The family all owe you our lives sis."

"And you're also wary of various situations," Jesse added listening in to the conversation while looking out the window. "You have a sense of when to strike and when not to. That's an invaluable asset for a wizard to have."

"Enough of the praises and let's get on with the training," Nick chimed in ending the conversation. "What I'm going to have you do is use a small amount of your mana and summon something."

"Ok here it goes," she says as she uses her communicator to search her deck to find something small. Once she finds a card, she focuses a small amount of mana and summons her Thornscape Apprentice with relative ease. "How's that?" she asks with a smile on her face on how easy she picked that up.

"Not too bad," Nick nods in approval as that was the easy part. "You have to watch how much mana you pour into your cards as you use them. What you did the other night saving my hide was the right amount of mana for the situation at hand. What Willie and I will teach you today is how to manage that so you don't wear yourself out so quickly." She nods listening with intent as the lesson goes on.

"Eventually," Willie mentions as he gets up, "you'll be able to this." He flares up his blue mana and channels quite a bit of it into a card before summoning his legendary creature in Ixidor, Reality Sculptor. "This is a legendary creature. When your power, stamina and focus get to a point, you'll be able to summon and control the ones that are in your deck. For now stay away from them." She nods again as he powers down and Ixidor returns the way he came. "That's why he had you summon something weak just then. Little by little we're going to build up your stamina as well as your power. So today you're to keep your aura flared as low as possible all day long as the two of us work with you ok?"

"I think I get it," she says as she tries to keep her aura flared like Willie had asked her to. "If you guys don't mind, I want to work with Nick first and then I'll work with Willie the second half of the day if that's ok with both of you."

"I don't have a problem with it," Willie responded as he walks off to see what the news reports are saying about what's going on out there. "Nick, she's all yours. Have fun and don't break her. That's my job for later." He laughs as he walks off.

"I'll never understand him," he says to himself as he turns his attention to Kali who's still standing there in her aura waiting for the next lesson. "Ok then let's get started. Since Willie told you to keep your aura slightly flared I want you to spike your power for me a few times." The lesson begins between the two and goes on for several hours.

Back in Varayan, Misty was settling into her role as leader of a city that's gone straight to hell. Law and order has broken down to the point of shear chaos and criminals were running wild across the city. The Crimson Fighters are constantly patrolling the city looking for any signs of resistance from wizards still in the city and there were very few of them. Every so often, mana duels would erupt between the fighters and resistance forces. Battlers on both sides suffered casualties causing the fighters to step up their patrols in certain neighborhoods.

Matilda scoured the roads leaving Varayan only to come up empty with no leads in the whereabouts of the wizards that fled the city. As she was told by Kali yesterday evening, Misty would have no idea which way they would've gone and besides they might've changed directions.

"As if I know which way to look," she frustratingly says as she searched the skies for any trace of which way they would've went. "This is like looking for four needles in a huge haystack." She continues her search as the sun reaches its highest point.

Shortly after midday, Nick and Kali takes a break from training to grab some food and see what everyone else is up to. Willie was on his communicator scanning the newswires to see about any updates on the situation in Varayan. Jesse was sitting in the windowsill enjoying the sunny day that had fallen on the hideout and Melanie was taking a nap.

"Guys," Willie speaks up getting everyone's attention, "I've found some news on what's happening out there. Hit the news feed on your communicators." The gang does just that and they don't believe their ears or what they see.

_This is a BREAKING NEWS special report . . . The city of Varayan in turmoil. I'm Max Vaspain with this report. Fires still rage out of control in the city of Varayan at this hour as chaos continues to reign supreme across the entire city. Hundreds are still unaccounted for as thousands flee the city for their own safety. Strange creatures still cover the sky and ground as madwoman Misty McClain and her group, the Crimson Fighters, continue to hold the city hostage and wreak havoc with local forces and occasional clashes with resistance wizards. As of midday today, over 1,800 people have been confirmed dead and that number is steadily rising. We've also gotten unconfirmed reports that similar events have taken place in five other cities around the country: reported uprisings in Valenia, Kaborn City, Livalia, Salvenburg, and Kirtren. These six cities have been placed on lockdown by the local authorities as they try to rectify the situation but all efforts seemed to have failed. Reporting live from the burning city of Varayan, this is Max Vaspain now back to you._

"Things are bad out there," Jesse says looking dejected at the latest development as they all turn off their communicators. "I feel sorry for whoever's left in Varayan still alive."

"Yeah," Nick responds as he sits down in disbelief. "It's not just the city from the sound of it. It's those other towns to." He looks over as Willie walks outside and slams the door shut as everyone stews over the latest developments about their hometown. "What's with him?"

"I'll go talk to him," Kali says as she goes after him to see what's got him so upset that he stormed out like he did. "Look after Melanie. I think that noise might have stirred her from her nap." She goes outside and sees Willie sitting where he was last night deep in thought. She gains a soft white aura remembering what he told her to do and sits by him. "I've never seen you so upset about anything."

"I'm just frustrated," he says to her and doesn't even turn to face her. "I didn't think things would get so out of control so quickly."

"Want some company. No fun to be alone in your mood without someone to talk to."

"Be my guest. I won't say anything."

"Things seem to be going from bad to worse with every passing day."

"There's no doubt about that. I was going to plan out how we were going to take back Varayan but I have no idea how to save half the country. I feel useless right now."

"I know you will come up with something." She gets closer to her and lean on his arm as she goes on. "I know in my heart that you that you'll come up with some kind of plan."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," he says leaning his head on hers as she snuggles up on him. "Just like last night huh? We were sitting here enjoying the scenery without a care in the world. "

"I know. It feels right though – being here with you like this." She turns her head as he turns his and they meet eye to eye for a moment before she closes the distance between them to within a few inches. "I know you're nervous because I can feel it." She leans even closer to him. "Just let it happen." She closes the distance and plants a soft lingering kiss on his lips. He responds and the kiss intensifies and after a few seconds breaks the kiss to catch their breath.

"That was . . . incredible!" he gasps still looking into her eyes shocked at what just took place.

"I've wanted to do that since last night," she smirked as they go back as they were before that happened. "I could tell that was your first kiss." He chuckled nervously as he heard that. "Relax. You're actually a pretty good kisser."

"Thanks for that I guess. You're fun to talk to you know?"

"I try." She leans in again and the two share another lingering kiss until he breaks it a few seconds later and they stand up to go inside.

"Ok then. Peace time's over and I believe it's time for me to train you. Nick had his fun and since you help brighten my mood, I'll go slightly less hard on you."

"Come on then. Let's see what you can teach me. Thanks to him I feel that I'm significantly stronger and my aura's been up all day."

"Let's get to work then," he chuckles as the two make their way inside.

Back inside, Nick and Jesse got into a bit of a sparring session testing out their skills against each other testing out some new cards they recently acquired before all hell broke loose in Varayan. Melanie was watching them go at it with interest. She was only fifteen but she also played the game and had a green/red beast deck on her. However, none of the four knew that while they were sparring, and the training session earlier in the day, Melanie had a soft green aura around her the entire day.

"Alright you guys," Willie shouts out getting the guys' attention as they power down and their creatures disappear as he and Kali walk into the room with a glow about them. Melanie also suppresses her aura to keep her sister from picking up on it. "It's time for Kali's training session with me so your little sparring session is over now clear out," he says with conviction as the guys do as he says.

"You seem different all of a sudden," Nick quizzed in as he walked past. "Why the sudden glow and don't deny it as it's on both of you."

"No big deal," Kali responded covering up any possible conclusions he might draw from the two of them. "We just had a little chat after that news report we all watched. Now it's time for me to get some stamina training so if you don't mind?" Nick lets them in without question and then turns to Jesse as they enter the sparring area.

"You know," he whispers to him as Willie and Kali take opposite ends of the sparring area with Melanie sitting Indian style in the middle against the wall. "I think more than a measly chat went down between those two. They looked a little too chummy together if you ask me."

"Oh will you get over yourself," Jesse tells him as they take places to watch as the training session gets going. "So what! She's just closer to him than she is to us. Let's just watch the session and see what happens."

"Focus and stamina," Willie says as his turn training Kali begins as both of them flare up their auras. "Increasing stamina will help keep you in duels longer and improving focus will allow you to use that power and control to rapid fire summon multiple creatures at one time. That's why Nick helped you build up your power earlier today by rapidly increasing your power. Now watch what I do." He focuses his mana while going through his cards in his communicator and after a few seconds pulses his power several times and them summons five wizards in Skirk Alarmist, Aphetto Runecaster, Willbender, his newly acquired Magus of the Arena and Sparkmage Apprentice – all while maintaining the same mana aura he started with. "You feel how my aura power remained unchanged?" she nods answering his question. "That's the combination of focus and control I have combined with my power."

"It's something all of us are able to do," Jesse confirmed it himself as Melanie, Nick and himself watched the session from where they were. "The same principle applies to our other cards in the same matter. Using multiple spells is something we all can do but at the same time, it can wear us out real quick if we do it too many times.

"He's right. Usually we do that only if it's needed but it's something you need to know how to do. Being able to use multiple spells at the same time will allow you to do other things during battle. Also, you need to keep your aura at a constant level as you pulse your power to maximize your effectiveness and duration in a duel. Now your first exercise, try and summon three creatures at the same time without changing your aura's intensity."

"Ok here I go," she calmly says as she closes her eyes and begins to focus to pulse her power. After getting her aura to a constant level, she opens her eyes and goes through her deck trying to find the three she wants to summon. After ten seconds of searching, she pulses her aura three times and rapid-fire summons Thornscape Apprentice, Elvish Warrior and Grassland Crusader. Her aura did change a slight bit and she staggered from the summoning but she held together nicely.

"That's good Kali," Melanie said clapping her hands as she watches her sister get stronger with each exercise. "You're getting better but that after drain is still bothering you." As she said that, Willie looked in her direction and noticed the soft green of her aura. He smiled and didn't say a word about it and continued the lesson.

"She's right you know," he confirmed what Melanie had said with a smile on his face. "It's nothing to worry about though. As you get used to it, the after drain will only kick in when you're low on power. Other than that, you did a good job." Both of them called back their creatures. "Now for your second exercise," he mentions as he hits a button on the wall and walks toward Kali and motioning to Melanie to move to the back wall. "Rapid fire three spells and hit any three of those targets. You can use whatever you want to. This will test your focus and your control. Now take a shot and go for it."

"Let's see," she mumbles to herself as she focuses her aura and scans her deck for the right mix of cards to use. After she makes her selection, she pulses her aura with three quick bursts and summons her Prodigal Pyromancer and has it use its ability to take out the first target, then she casts Lightning bolt on the second target and finally summons a Scorched Rusalka to take out the third target. This time there were no after affects and she was as firm as ever with a smile on her face. "How about that," she says as she turned around to him who nods in approval.

"You're getting there," he says approvingly. "Some more practice and you're there. Power wise, I'd say you're on par with the rest of us here – that is except for your sister," he says feeling her power confident that she can handle herself. He looks to Melanie and nods his head acknowledging her power's gone up significantly oblivious from Nick and Jesse who haven't picked up on it yet. "You just need to work on your control and improving your focus then you'll be just as good as the three of us are."

"I feel myself getting stronger already," she mentions to him as they end their lesson for the day. "I guess all I really need is some solo practice to work on everything you and Nick taught me today."

"That's all we can ask for. Alright, that's all for today. I say we all get some rest and tomorrow I'll try to figure out our next move."

That night, everyone was in a deep sleep except for Willie who went out to enjoy the night sky in peace. Also, he had cast his Lay of the Land to get a feel for the surrounding area so he could come up with a plan of attack. He wasn't getting anywhere and didn't notice as Kali came outside and walked up behind him to see what he was actually doing.

"Don't you ever get any sleep?" she asks him as she put her arms around him. "You'll be too wiped to do anything tomorrow if you keep going at this rate."

"Eh, I don't need much sleep," Willie shot back as he turned around and looked at her. "I should be asking you the same question."

"I want to but I don't like the fact that you're by yourself so much. It's better to have someone help you know."

"I know but I work better alone. You really should get some sleep."

"I will only if you come with me. I don't care how little sleep you need rest is rest," she says rather slyly as she plants a soft kiss on his lips. "Besides, you do way too much for the group."

"Fine I guess," he answers before she gives him another deep kiss before heading inside. The rest of the night was peaceful as the entire gang slept peacefully without incident knowing it would be the last night they would be in the hideaway.

The next morning people were a bit lazy getting up with Nick knocked out in the training room along with Jesse on the other end, Melanie on a beanbag chair looking at the green communicator that was in Willie's bag, and Kali was leaning onto Willie's arm as they were still sleeping. Melanie decided to try on the communicator and it was a good fit on her but once she saw Willie start to stir, she quickly took off the device and returned it to the bag hoping she wouldn't be caught.

"It's alright Melanie," Willie lazily said as he got up to check the map that he made last night. She went red knowing she was caught. "If you want to have it then it's yours." He comes closer to whisper in her ear. "I know about your aura and the fact that you're another wizard."

"How do you know that?" she whispered back as she was curious to know how he knew.

"I saw your beast deck the first night we were here. I haven't told anyone yet so you better keep that thing hidden until the time is right." She nodded and put the thing in her purse for now. Willie went to the map and took a look at all the nearby towns that were on it.

After everyone was awake and had a chance to get some breakfast, they all gathered at the bar to see what Willie had called the post-meal meeting for. Nick and Jesse were on his left while Kali placed her head on his shoulder and had her arm around him as he started.

"Ok everyone," he starts out pointing to the area where they were. "Here's what I gathered from the Lay of the Land I used last night. From where we are, there are a number of outpost towns on the outer fringes of the six major cities." He points to six boundary lines around the cities as he goes on. "From all intelligence, this boundary seems to be the extent of the territory that each of the six groups has right now and that might be subject to change."

"So what are you getting at," Nick asked getting antsy with every word that Willie is saying.

"What I'm trying to say is this: we take one of these towns to give us a base of operations to conduct rescue missions."

"So where do we go first," Jesse asked looking over the map of the area. "From the looks of it, we can take any town near any of the six cities under siege."

"I don't think it's that simple," Melanie chimed in making an assumption based on what they were seeing. "Whatever town you all pick has to have certain things, right? It sounds like we just can't go anywhere."

"Kali, your sister is wise beyond her years. I've been trying to find a town big enough to house rescued wizards as well as put us in a position to get to all of the towns in the shortest amount of time possible. But also there's something else that's an absolute necessity. We'd need to be able to see all incoming attackers from wherever we set up shop."

"Which takes out all wooded areas or those surrounded by hills or mountains," Nick added in trying to dissect the map based on what Willie was saying. "But we need some kind of defense system so I don't see us in a town that's wide open in all directions."

"A flat-plain village wouldn't work because there's more than one way into the town. There has to be some kind of defense and no more than two ways into town: one by land and one by air. Based on those assumptions and conditions, I've selected three towns that have everything we need from housing to defense: the town of Solarium that's between Varayan and Kaborn City, Valderia's Peak near Livalia, and Aldertown that sits between Salvenburg and Kirtren."

"My family's in Aldertown," Jesse says with a smile on his face once that town was named. "It would make sense to go there and we'd have a place to crash."

"Not finished. We also have to find out where is the greatest need for assistance. We can't just show up somewhere and start bashing brains in. As Melanie said a second ago, we can't just go anywhere and there's no way we can go back to Varayan right now anyway."

"Why don't we go to Valderia's Peak?" Kali suggested as the debate raged on about where to go first. "It's really high up and there are places where we could see the entire country. I'm just throwing that out there."

"That's one vote for Valderia's Peak and one vote for Aldertown. This is a group decision guys so what do you think?"

"I'm voting with my sister on this one if my vote counts for anything," Melanie says sticking with her sister."

"I'm right in thinking that Solarium is out?" Nick asked as Willie nodded answering the question that was asked. Just as Nick was about to answer, all four of their communicators went off and they answered them to reveal a dark-skinned individual in a panic trying to reach anyone for assistance.

"_This is a level one priority alert! We are pinned down and in need of help."_

"Ok man just calm down," Willie says as the individual on their screens tries to look serious. "What's your name, where are you and what is your situation?"

_"My name is Jamie Banson. I am the green wizard of Livalia who got run out of town when it was overrun by a group called the Forest Brigade. Their leader's a guy named Brian Amervine who ordered his group to attack Valderia's Peak to wipe us all out. That's where we are now. We are pinned down and heavily outnumbered. Most of my group has either been killed or badly injured but my core team of five is still fighting along with a few others." A loud explosion is heard getting his attention for a second. "It's not looking good here man."_

"Here is what you do. Tell your team to get their communicators on this frequency. We are the wizards from Varayan and we're coming to help. My name's Willie and we're coming for you. The rest of my gang includes Kali who's watching her younger sister Melanie, Nick and Jesse. We'll be there as soon as we can."

_"We're here and we're still fighting. I'll tell my crew what you said. See you soon."_

"The decision's been made for us," Willie responded as he turned his communicator off and started to roll up his map that he made earlier. "Pack your things and get your decks ready for battle. We leave for Valderia's Peak immediately." The group nods and starts to gather their things as Kali notices him sighing as he packs his bag with a worried look on his face.

"Something's on your mind?" she whispers watching him put on his backpack and then turns to her.

"Honestly I'm not too sure," Willie responds looking into her eyes. "It feels surreal going to a mountainside resort for a battle and all but we're needed there."

"It'll be ok. After we clear that place out the whole team can have a real vacation. Plus there's the bonus of being around you like I've been since we've been here," she says with a side smile as she lovingly grabs his hand."

"A vacation sounds good right about now after all that's happened. And I wouldn't mind spending some more time with you too." As the two continue talking low enough that no one would hear them, Nick was observing the two with an unusual interest while Jesse packs water, sodas and energy drinks for everyone. Melanie was already packed and knew to stay away from her sister when she was in a conversation with someone.

"Look at that," Nick says turning to Jesse who had just walked up to him. "I told you something is going on between those two. The way they're talking to each other, the way they came in from outside yesterday, and the fact she snuck out again last night when he wasn't in here with the rest of us . . ."

"I told you to stay out of it," Jesse sternly responded pushing his shoulder back. "Whatever is going on between them, if anything at all, is strictly their business. I know when to keep my nose out of matters that don't imply me."

"Ok guys," Willie speaks up as everyone leaves the hideout to a cloudy day. "Since Jamie's crew knows we're coming, let's say that we each summon a dragon to ride on. Of course Melanie will ride with her sister." As he says that, there was a look of disappointment on Kali's face that caught Jesse's attention.

"Ok maybe you're right," Jesse whispers to Nick as they listened to the plan. "Her face says she wanted to be with Willie for this trip."

"I know," Nick responded acknowledging the same thing. "We'll have to see if they are really going together or what."

Each of the four individuals summons a dragon for the one hour flight toward Valderia's Peak with Willie summoning his Dragon Mage, Kali summoning a Hellkite Charger for her and Melanie, Nick summons an Imperial Hellkite and Jesse summons a Dragon Whelp. The four individuals head out not knowing that freeing the resort from enemy control would be an all out struggle for all of them.


	6. The Mountainside Resort

_Magic the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 6: The Mountainside Resort

Traveling on the backs of their dragons as they are in and out of the clouds, the Varayan wizards are making their way towards the resort town of Valderia's Peak to aid a wizard and his team who are in trouble against Livalia's group of hostile wizards. The gang was enjoying diving in and out of the clouds killing the time lightening the mood before the battle that is coming fast. As they got back into a tight formation, Kali snuck glances at Willie as they got close together in the sky. He didn't notice as he was deep in thought contemplating a strategy for the battle ahead. Nick and Jesse were slightly behind and noticed Kali's glances as Melanie held on to keep from falling off.

"I told you that there was something going on between them," Nick tells Jesse through his communicator as the mountain range where the resort is located comes into view. "Just look at her. She's definitely crushing on him."

"You can't leave this alone will you?" Jesse asks him as they tighten the formation. "It's none of our business so drop it already."

"Okay everyone," Willie lets out a sigh as he uploads several beacons onto everyone's communicators as the resort comes into view on the mountain range. "Those beacons are the locations of Jamie and his team along plus anyone else fighting with them. Our mission has three parts to it. First, we need to link up with Jamie and his team and get all of them together as soon as we land. We're definitely going to encounter heavy resistance be ready for a fight. Second, we need to clear out the group that's taken over this town and finally we take out the one in charge. Everyone clear on what we need to do?"

"Yeah!" everyone says as all four of their auras go up.

Valderia's Peak is a mountain resort community best known for its dragon-powered saunas and soothing spas. Hotels are all over the city to house and service travelers from all over the country. The town also has a technological side that keeps everything going that lies in the three mountain peaks that encircle the city as well as its underground network. One peak has the defense and communication hubs, one keeps the city running and the third houses a great secret that is only known to the locals. In the northern peak where the communications and town defense systems are, an overweight individual wearing a dark green getup walks in with Matilda, who was sent by Misty to inform him about the wizards from Varayan that disappeared from there several days prior.

"Just know these wizards are not to be taken lightly," she says to Jonathan who leads the faction of the Forest Brigade that's taken over the town. "They have a rookie with them named Kali that held her own against me and she was basically untrained. Now that a few days have passed, no telling how much stronger she and the rest of them have gotten. There may even be more of them."

"Don't worry about it," Jonathan reassures her as he shows her the fact that they've got the entire city in their control. "There's only one way in and that's by air and it's heavily defended. We've got anti-flyers stationed on the peaks along with bird soldiers and whatnot."

"Still, don't underestimate them. You get careless against them they'll scrap you and your group faster than you can say mana pool."

"Relax why don't you? There's no way that this small group of rebels could hold up against –" he is cut off by the alarm coming from the scanner on the far end of the room. Checking it out, it shows four auras approaching the city at a pretty good clip from the southwest. "Get it on screen," he demands as the ones working the cameras get them into position. The image shows exactly what Matilda was concerned about: the wizards were approaching and they all were on dragons and auras at the ready.

"That's what I was talking about!" Matilda showed him as they were getting closer to the city with every second. "So what are you going to do now?"

"This is a stage three alert," Jonathan yells in the loudspeakers around the town as the alarms around the city started to sound very loudly. "Anti-flying squads three and seven to the southwest end of town and prepare to attack. Squads two, three, and eight be ready with the second line of defense. Squads one and four are on standby. We're about to have some company. You want to stick around," he asks Matilda as she stares at the screen at Kali. "Some extra firepower couldn't hurt at all."

"I think I will hang for a while," she responded smiling at the opportunity. "I've got a score to settle with that Kali chick. We never finished our duel."

Outside of the city the wizards were approaching the resort with relative ease as the resort came into full view of the four fighting wizards. Even Melanie was amazed at the view the five of them had of the resort but it was not going to last. Even from the distance that the wizards were, they can see that many things gathering at that particular area they were going to enter the town on. Seeing all of this, Kali became concerned about what was about to head their way.

"I'm getting really worried about this," Kali says sensing the many auras that are gathering at where the wizards were entering the town. "They're really going to make it hard for us to enter the resort are they?"

"Which makes it all the more fun," Nick implied cracking his fists and scanning his deck for something to use. "It's time to knock some heads around."

"Hold on a sec Nick," Willie chimed in getting Nick's attention. "No one make a move until we land in the resort. Save your power and if you have to, only use your defensive cards. Our dragons should handle the attackers they send until we can get on the ground and then we can let loose."

"_I like it when he's always thinking like that_," Kali thinks listening to the plan being laid out. "_No doubt that I've fallen for him._" As she looks and listens to the plan, Melanie notices the facial expression on her sister's face and makes a mental note to ask either her or Willie about it later.

In the defense room of the resort, Jonathan has his groups waiting anxiously to launch the attack against the wizards. Matilda is getting her deck ready for a rematch with Kali.

"What are you waiting on," she asks him as his hand twitches on the button to signal the attack. "They're getting closer with each second you know."

"I know that. I want to give the archers that were summoned a good shot. I don't believe in wasting power. I don't know how your boss does things where you come from, but here we do things my way."

"Fine, this is your town. Just let me know when they land," she says as she sits down in a recliner in the room and takes a nap."

"Overconfident little witch," he whispers as he turns and sees that the wizards have gotten into the range of the Tel-Jilad Archers that were summoned. "Squads three and seven – open fire!" the archers start shooting arrows upon hearing the call of the leader. The arrows are launched in rapid fire style and before long, the sky filled with arrows as they approached the wizards on their dragons.

"Incoming!" Kali shouts out as her eyes get huge on the barrage of arrows heading their way.

"So it begins," Willie whispers to himself as he prepares to take a defensive move. "Everyone, scatter!" the gang does just that as they all had to make defensive maneuvers just to avoid getting hit and not everyone was successful. Jesse's Dragon Whelp took serious damage and if he didn't use Dragon Scales it would've meant a long way down to certain death. Willie got through the best with his Dragon Mage and was about to make an attack on the archers a scream gets his attention amongst the chaos.

"Melanie!" Kali screams out as she watches her sister free fall from Kali's dragon. She had made a quick move to dodge some of the arrows and one of them got close to her causing her to jerk in reaction causing Melanie to lose her grip and fall off. Kali was in no position to dive after her given the move she had made. Out of pure instinct, Willie immediately dives after her on his dragon in a desperate attempt to catch her.

"I'll get her," he shouts out as he dives after her on his dragon. He has his mage go as fast as it can to catch up with her but she was falling faster than he could go plus she had a head start. Melanie was freaking out for a few seconds but started to calm down as she started to focus and her green mana aura flared up to full power getting Willie's attention who's about 800 feet behind her trying to catch up. "It's hear aura. I can feel it all the way from here. I might not have to catch her after all." Melanie pulled out her communicator and manages to put it on her wrist and her deck in it. She uses it to search her deck until she came upon her secret weapon. She focuses her mana like she saw Kali do the other day until she releases it and summons a Kilnmouth Dragon of all things. Her freefall stops as she lands on its head.

"Well," she says to herself as she looks around of where she is and the creature she just summoned, "at least I'm not dead. I can't believe I just summoned a creature." As she said that, Willie finally caught as he had his mage pull up once he felt the release of mana.

"Looks like I was right after all," Willie says as he drops beside her with a smile on his face clapping his hands in approval. "You are the green wizard for our group. My guess is you have a ton of beasts in that deck right?" Melanie nods answering his question. "Since your secret is now out, how about we fly back up and give your sister and the guys a hand?" She gives a thumbs-up as they both fly back up to rejoin the others who have stalled in their advance.

Back at the battle, the other three were doing everything they can to just defend themselves from the barrage of arrows before being forced to back out of the archers' attack range. Kali was distracted due to being worried about her sister and if she's ok along with Willie who went after her.

"I hope they're ok down there," Kali anxiously mentions as she manages to pull up next to Nick who had come up to help her.

"Don't worry," Nick responds as his dragon is dodging another barrage of arrows along with Kali and Jesse as they've gotten in a defensive formation to keep themselves alive while they try to advance. "I'm sure your 'boyfriend' will make sure your sister is safe." Kali went beet red with embarrassment when he said that. "So you _do_ like him?"

"Well . . . I sort of—"she was fortunately cut-off by Willie coming up out of nowhere to a stop by the three other wizards and surprisingly without Melanie. Kali looked rather puzzled by the absence of her sister. "Where is my sister?" she asked him out of concern and curiosity why he had come up without her.

"You guys are not going to believe this," Willie said with a smile as his face had the look of disbelief. Kali looked at him with curiosity as he answered her question. "Your sister is actually . . . on her way up. Just see for yourself." The gang turns in the direction that Willie is looking and all three of their jaws drop as they see Melanie come flying up to the group on the head of her Kilnmouth Dragon. Willie starts cracking up laughing when he sees their reaction. "You guys should see the look on your faces. You look like you've seen a ghost."

"So guys," Melanie asks with a smile on her face and her aura at the same intensity as the other four. "What do you think of my secret weapon?"

"Unbelievable," Kali responds shaking her head in disbelief. "I didn't even know you even played the game much less seeing you as a wizard."

"This raises a few questions," Jesse mentions as he looks at her and her dragon with disbelief.

"We'll have to save the questions for after the mission," Willie interrupted as he turned back to the battle at hand. "Right now we need to get to that resort and find Jamie and his team."

Back in the resort's defense station, Jonathan was shocked at what he was seeing as a fifth dragon joined the group of four. This even got Matilda's attention as there was another dragon in the group. The radar now showed five wizards approaching the city.

"I don't believe this," he says as he looks at the monitor that has the camera pointed at the wizards, "now there are five of them."

"I told not to take them lightly," she responds sarcastically looking at the monitor with him. "Wait a second, that's the sister of the one I have to kill. I remember her from when I tied up her family. I'm more than happy that I stuck around. Now they're advancing again."

With Melanie leading the way, the attackers stood no chance this time as the wizards pushed their way towards the city with her dragon blasting everything in sight plus Willie casted Pay No Heed to prevent damage. Once they reached the city, Nick cast a combination of Death Pulse, Terror, Brainspoil, and Carbonize to clear off the first wave of attackers allowing the gang to successfully land where the Tel-Jilad Archers were launching arrows from.

"We're finally here," Jesse mentions as they all disembark and they recall their dragons to their cards. "So master of battle plans . . . what the plan now?"

"Same as before," Willie answers as he's checking his communicator for the signals coming from Jamie and his team. "With five of us here, it makes things a bit complicated. We proceed with Phase 1. Melanie stays with me due to her inexperience. The rest of you spread out and find the other three members of Jamie's team. I'll let you decide who goes after whom. We'll go after Jamie. Gather anyone else you run across and help them if needed. We'll meet back here in about three hours. Let's go!" Everyone goes off in four different directions as the mission gets under way. Willie and Melanie go after Jamie's green beacon, Kali went after the red beacon, Jesse went after the white and black beacons since they were close together and Nick went after the blue beacon.

Kali went towards the spa area as she was tracking the red beacon on her communicator but she also had another motive for heading in that direction in trying to find the perfect places for a possible first date with Willie once they take over this resort. She looked at two different restaurants along with three different movie theaters and a few of the resorts' other attractions. As she rounded a corner following the beacon she came across several wizards fighting off a herd of various soldiers including Daru Cavalier, Daru Stinger, Daru Lancer, and leading the herd was a Daru Warchief. Her beacon showed that one of them was one of the members of Jamie's team she was to look for.

"Looks like I found the person that I'm looking for," she says looking at the battle as she increases her aura power. "I'd better help them out so I can get back to what I was doing." She channels her mana through her deck and rapid fire summons Glory Seeker and used Gather Courage on it, a Grassland Crusader, Nomadic Elf, and a Selesyna Guildmage. To announce her arrival to the battle, she casts Simoon to eliminate a few other enemy creatures getting the dark wizards' attention. "Looks like I'm just in time."

"About time you got here," the young lady leading the group steps forward as Kali walks to them as the creatures continue their battle. She was another dark-skinned individual wearing a blue jacket vest with a red shirt and black jeans. She had black hair and brown eyes. "I take it you're one of the wizards from Varayan that came out to help us?"

"You would be right about that," Kali says as the two shake hands. "I'm Kali, the white wizard from Varayan."

"I'm Amy. I am the red wizard from Livalia. Right now, all of us were separated when we arrived here having to deal with all of these wizards."

"Speaking of which," she turns to the battle at hand which her creatures have the upper hand. "I've got a good reason to rid this section of these morons." She recalls her creatures and uses her Day of Judgment to eliminate all creatures and before they could do anything else, Amy casts her Spire Barrage along with a few of the survivors who were with her to finish off those Forest Brigade members. Afterwards, the girls returned to their conversation.

"Now that reason you were speaking of," Amy questioned back regarding Kali's last comment as she turned around and went beet red with shyness and let out a slight chuckle. "It's a guy isn't it? I can tell by the look on your face."

"Maybe it is," she responds not sure where the conversation was going to head as they headed towards the meeting. "He's in my group and he's a very sweet guy,"

"You got to give me more than that lady. I love listening to some dating gossip after that exchange. What's his name and why you're so into him?"

"Well, his name's Willie and I've been into him since we were run out of Varayan."

Willie and Melanie have had somewhat of an easier time making their way towards where Jamie was holding up. Both of them were riding on two morph creatures that Willie had conjured up and above them he also summoned his Aphetto Runecaster equipped with the artifact Loxodon Warhammer and enchanted with Dragon Wings. He also summoned his trustworthy Nantuko Blightcutter equipped with the artifact Neurok Hoversail and enchanted with Armadillo Cloak. As they follow Jamie's signal, they enter an area that was covered with goblins and they all were controlled by a Cabal Slaver.

"Oh man," Willie groans in disgust as he directs his insect druid to take out the slaver. "If there's one thing I can't stand more than anything, its goblins."

"I'm with you there, "Melanie says as she focuses and summons a Frenetic Raptor to attack the goblins. "They're sloppy and downright disgusting,"

"I really need some downtime when this is over," he responds as their creatures finish destroying the goblins and the slaver before moving on to the next area. "I just want to relax for a while and forget the mess we're in even if it's for a day."

"My sister might have something to say about that you know."

"I'm not surprised," he says back shaking his head with a smile to hide the sudden nervousness. "She's been all over me since that night we left town."

"You two seem really into each other the last few days. Do you really like her? Don't act like you don't as I know you do."

"Ok you got me. I do like her . . . a lot actually."

"That first night," Kali speaks to Amy about the same topic as they both have arrived at the meeting area along with those that were with Amy. "I got close to him and even lain on his arm. We even looked into each other's eyes and . . ."

"I could tell she wanted to kiss me but it didn't feel right to me at the time," Willie continues the same conversation to Melanie as they clear out another area full of goblins as they get closer to Jamie's reported location. "So I chickened out and called it a night. Then the next day when we all saw that news report, I got so frustrated I stormed outside to do some thinking and . . ."

"I followed him out there so see what got him so upset," Kali continued with Amy as they leaned on the railing overlooking the mountains. "After I got him to lighten up, we were back like we were the previous night with us staring eye to eye. This time, as I closed the distance between us . . ."

"I started shaking like a leaf because I was so nervous about the whole thing," Willie continued talking to Melanie. "Then she calmly told me . . ."

". . . to let it happen," Kali told Amy as she listened with interest. "Then I planted a soft kiss on his lips. I could tell it was his first kiss so I lingered for a sec . . ."

"Until we intensified for a few more seconds until we broke it," Willie continued. "Needless to say . . ."

"He was beyond speechless," Kali continued, "I could tell it was his first kiss and I meant it when I told him that he's a good kisser to me."

"That's some story," Amy finally said after listening to her tale. "So tell me why you two haven't . . ."

"Why you two haven't made it official that you're together?" Melanie questioned Willie as finally reached the area where Jamie's beacon was at its strongest.

"I'd rather take it slow," he answered as he sent his summoned creatures to deal with a pack of beasts that were surrounding Jamie who had only a single Fangren Hunter protecting him as Melanie used a Torrent of Fire on the wizards who were dodging everything thrown at them. "There's no reason . . ."

"To try and rush anything," Kali continued answering the same question Amy asked. "I want to go slow and see what happens."

The beasts were becoming a huge problem for Willie and Melanie as the wizards that had summoned them were giving themselves shroud and dodging attacks. Any that do get destroyed, others are using spells like Reaping the Graves to bring them back and some kept coming back over and over again until they figured out what the deal was as Jamie got a break and rushed over to them.

"You must be the wizards that I contacted," Jamie says out of breath and his aura only at half strength as they both nod in approval. "Now that you're here, maybe you can figure out why these things won't stay gone."

"Already two steps ahead of you," Willie responded as he scans his collection looking for the enchantments that were being used. "I figure that one of two or three enchantments is being used. Can't say for sure which ones, but we can't just destroy all of them because my two creatures fighting over there have enchantments on them."

"So you can't disenchant the area if you don't know what you're disenchanting right?" Jamie asks as he looks on as the two nods in approval and searches their card databases on their communicators to figure out what's being used.

"Got them," Melanie says to them as they look on at what she found out. "There are two enchantments in use here. One of them is a card called Sigil of the New Dawn and the other is a black enchantment I've never heard of called Dawn of the Dead."

"They are sneaky that's for sure," Willie smirks as he prepares two disenchants that are in his deck. "An enchantment that negates a creature's destruction by absorbing some mana thus allows it to be recalled then recasting it and another that allows a player to resurrect a fallen creature but it only lasts for a short time. Unfortunately their jig is now up. I cast both Demystify and Naturalize." Both of the enchantments are wiped out and the wizards are scampering as Melanie's burn spells find their mark and Willie's Aphetto Runecaster and Nantuko Blightcutter are laying waste to the beasts that can no longer come back when beaten or close to it. When the dust settled, seven of the twelve wizards for the Forest Brigade were dead and another three were injured as two got away.

"I owe you my thanks for sure," Jamie responds as he finally gets a chance to breathe. "My team got separated again after I relayed your message. Thanks for coming."

"It's what we do. We don't leave another wizard who's fighting the good fight in distress for anything. Now we need to get back to where we entered the city as that's where the rest of our respective teams will be when we get there." The three make their way back the way they came on the backs of those same morph creatures they rode in on.

Nick basically started rolling through everyone he came across on the way to his target. In one particular area, he came across a group of about a dozen of those green-clad wizards hanging out without a care in the world. Getting the drop on them, he casts Inferno in the entire room scorching the entire room and then casts a variety of spells wiping out the entire room of wizards.

"That was way too easy," he mentioned as he dusted his hands of the situation but his concern wasn't over yet. As he headed into the next room as his beacon signaled he was on top of his target, several more wizards ambushed him by jumping down from the upper balcony. He was about to react when they were told to stand down.

"He's friendly," a male voice calls out as the wizards all powered down and he stepped out of the shadows. He was a white individual that wore a blue shirt with a skull design on it. "I don't care who you are or where you came from, but Jamie said you were coming so I guess I can trust you. The name's Darren and I'm the blue wizard of Livalia."

"I'm Nick. I don't like this anymore than you do but we'd better get back and meet up with the rest of our respective groups."

"I'd give anything to stay away from the lovesick members of my team."

"You too huh," Nick responded as they walk off along with Darren's fighters and continue their conversation.

Jesse had a simple time finding his targets as he decided to sneak around and get to his target with as little involvement with enemy wizards as possible. He was one who'd rather avoid a fight than engage the enemy straight up. His sneaking around this time did him some good as he avoided most of the enemies until he got to where his two beacons were. Once inside, they were heavily surrounded by a gaggle of Zombie Cutthroat and Scuttling Death. Jesse immediately summons his Murasa Pyromancer and two Avarax and they make short work of the creatures. Afterwards, as he approaches the two individuals only to see them making out completely oblivious of what was going on around them.

"Uh, hello?" he calls out getting their attention. "I've been sent to get both of you so we can link up with our teams."

"Sorry, the young man says as they get up. They're both were smothered in lipstick from making out a ton. "My name's Daniel and this is April and we've been going out for a few months."

"My name's Jesse and I am the red wizard from Varayan. Now if you two are done sucking face, we can get back to our leaders and see what's next." The three turn to head back to the meet up with Jesse in the rear. "Man I seriously hope there's not a couple in every group we meet."

In the defense hub, Jonathan was not a happy camper that is first two lines of defense have been severely decimated. He was pacing back and forth trying to figure out how to stop them now that they've met up. Matilda, on the other hand, had finished resetting her deck and had started to head out.

"And where do you think you're going?" he asked her as the doors opened for her to step out. "I thought you were going to help out around here."

"I told you that I have no interest in what happens to you," she snapped back taking a few steps. "Plus I have a score to settle with a certain chick and a mission to complete for my leader. I'll be waiting inside the front door of the hub when the next plan you come up with fails." She leaves as he's getting angrier with every second.

"Get all remaining wizards to the front door of the hub to form a defensive perimeter. Squads one and four get over there with them." On those orders, over forty wizards made their way to the hub and formed a defensive perimeter around the door in several layers. "That should buy some time but I don't know for how long.

In the elevator heading to the lobby, Matilda was contemplating her rematch with Kali knowing that this time she will not leave without her body or not at all. Leaning on the railing, she runs through her black/green deck to make sure it's everything she'll need. She preps herself by putting her blonde hair into a ponytail and putting black gloves on her hands with her deck in her left. She has on the green shirt which covers her crimson mark and a black jacket and blue jeans and heel boots.

"Now I'm ready. This chick won't know what hit her until she's good and dead."

Back at the meeting place, the others slowly made their way to where Kali and Amy were with Amy's group of fighters that stayed with her. First back was Nick with Darren and his group of fighters. Then Willie and Melanie arrived with Jamie on the backs of Willie's morph creatures and the two creatures he has had out fighting the whole time. They jump off and Willie recalls all of his creatures to give them a rest for all they've done. Finally Jesse comes with Daniel and April who were still making out.

"Will someone tell these two to stop with the kissy face?" Jesse pleaded tired of seeing those two making out for the last five minutes.

"They have been like that since they got together," Jamie responds shaking his head at Jesse's request. "Ok you two. That's enough. There's work to do so save it until we've taken care of business." The two comply and break their lengthy kiss.

"At least they're open about it," Nick retorts getting nods and laughs from everyone. "Now if only our resident couple would just admit they want to be together it would make things complete." Kali blushes as Amy nudges her with a smile on her face and Willie glares at him with an 'I can't believe you just said that' look as Melanie nudges him playfully.

"I'll make sure I get you back for that later," Willie snaps at him getting a smile from Kali thinking the same thing then turns to the rest of the very large group. "Now for the next step since we're all together. Jamie, you have any idea who's running the show around here?"

"It's a guy named Jonathan," he responds nodding his head answering the question. "He's the number four guy in the Forest Brigade. He's got crazy skills and very good with using beast decks. He has a green/red deck full of beasts and burn cards and power-ups to go."

"That guy is as good as mine," Melanie smirks as she rubs her hands wanting to test her deck against another beast deck. "I can't wait to get my hands dirty."

"Let's wait until we get there first and see what's what," Willie responds as the group gets antsy wanting action. "As soon as we know where that is, we'll get going."

"More likely he's hiding in the defense hub in the northern peak."

"Then that's where we're headed. The next step in our plan is to clear a route to the hub. That's where your fighters come into play. They are to clear out enough of the defense around the entrance to the hub that are sure to be set up by now. Then we go in and do the deed and we get a day's vacation to enjoy this resort." Everyone nods in agreement and heads out towards the hub.

Twenty minutes later as the sun dips behind the mountains, the large group steamrolls towards the hub and notices several layers of wizards guarding the entrance and perimeter. Jamie has the fighters who have stuck with them deal with those wizards and over half of those guarding the entrance were weakened through earlier battles which made them pushovers. The gang of ten waited patiently as the entranceway was cleared long enough for them all to advance and enter the hub. When one of them gave the word that they had the situation under control, the ten wizards ran like crazy into the hub locking the door behind them. Once inside, the gang turns around and sees the elevator doors on the other side of the lobby and out walks Matilda armed with her deck and ready for a fight.

"Her again," Kali spoke up getting everyone's attention. "What's she doing here?"

"Who is that?" Jamie asks as Kali flares up her aura getting angrier by the second.

"Calm down Kali," Willie calmly says touching her shoulder pulling her back. "That, Jamie, is one of Misty's lackeys. I take it she's the reason that Jonathan knew we were coming after he took over here thus explaining the rude welcome wagon we got when we approached the resort."

"Just as intrusive as I remember," Matilda responds noticing the wizards from before. "The name's Matilda. You might want to remember that when I kill you," she smirks pointing directly to Kali. "We never finished our little duel before. I still have my orders to take you out."

"You're still on that trip," Kali retorted as her aura got even brighter. "Well good luck with that. I'm not giving you the chance." Melanie wanted to get a word in but her sister stopped her before she said anything. "This is something I have to do. Stay with the others." As the stare-down continued, a loud bang is heard from outside getting everyone else's attention.

"Too much to do in too little time," Willie says shaking his head as he contemplates a counter plan to this unwanted distraction.

"Those girls look like they want to slaughter each other," Darren noted as he's notices the barricade started to give with the battle outside. "Don't we still need to deal with Jonathan?"

"Yeah we do," Jamie responded looking at the two ladies about to duel. "But no one's going anywhere until this situation is resolved with one or both of them dead." Willie shot him a look when he said that shutting him up on the spot.

"I can care less what you do," Matilda speaks up on the given situation. "I just want Kali for myself. My master wishes her death and I will deliver."

"Well," Willie finally speaks on things after getting his plan together. "It looks like what we have here is a rematch. Jamie, take your team along with Melanie and Nick and go deal with Jonathan. I'm staying here to watch this and to make sure no one else interferes. Jesse will watch that door to make sure no hostiles manage to break in on this duel."

"Why do I have to go?" Melanie pouts as her green aura flares up. "I want some payback for her tying me up."

"Because you're still green and you have an itchy trigger. This is something that Kali has to do on her own. Plus this is a chance to see how far your sister has come as a wizard. There has to be no interference. Just go and take out your frustrations on Jonathan." Frustratingly she goes off with Jamie's team along with Nick to the elevators and the door closes. Willie then turns and locks eyes with Matilda as he pulls a card out of her deck. "Before you two tear each other apart answer me this: Why does Misty want Kali and Elena dead anyway?"

"Since I'm about to kill her and you'll never stop me or Madam Misty I might as well tell you," she smirks as she starts to channel her mana into a card and Kali does the same. "My master wants the power that Elena possesses. Then she could use that power to summon Karona from within some temple in Rovenia that's being built by factions from all six groups. Once that's done and some artifact is found, not to mention the sacrifice of Kali's Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Misty's Phage the Untouchable into that artifact, Karona will rise and grant the six leaders the power of the sorcerers. Only Madam Misty plans to take the power and kill not only Karona but the other leaders and take over as supreme overlord of all planes of existence. That's all I'm telling you now let's get started girl," she says never taking her eyes off of Kali who waits in anticipation for her first move. "The sooner I kill you the faster my master becomes all powerful. I summon Troll Ascetic."

"Then I'll summon both Pincer Spider and Prodigal Pyromancer," Kali responds as their battle begins and Willie finds a spot out of the line of fire and watches the show before him. Jesse is doing the same thing as he's keeping watch over the door.

On the elevator, Melanie was still beefing about not being able to get a shot at Matilda before leaving her sister like she did. Nick was talking to Jamie about Jonathan and who else might be up at the control room. After he finishes talking to Jamie, he goes over to Melanie and tries to comfort her as she's still sulking.

"Don't worry about it," Nick tries to reassure her to lift her spirits as they get ready for their battle. "Your sister will be fine. Kali can handle herself plus her boyfriend is watching her."

"You're right. We have our own job to do. I'll worry about my sister after we kill this creep." The elevator dings and the seven of them step out into a room with monitors watching all activity around the resort. There's a monitor watching the battle between Kali and Matilda in the lobby of the hub and another outside as the fighters with the Livalian wizards fend off what remains of the Forest Brigade. Jonathan, who had been watching the battle involving Matilda, turns around to greet his guests.

"So you found me eh wizards," Jonathan says as he's got his beast deck ready to go. "There's not much room for all seven of you to gang up on me at one time. Unless you want this room totaled, then take your shot." As the seven tried to decide who would be the first to duel, Melanie, looking to take out some aggression, steps forward and summoned a Fangren Hunter.

"You'll have to deal with me first," she announced to the surprise of the others. "Unfortunately for you, I'm in a bad mood right now. So I'll just take out my frustrations on you." She also casts Dragon Fangs on her hunter. Jonathan, not to be outdone, summons a Barkhide Mauler to counter her beast.

"It's a battle of beast decks," Jamie says looking on at the battle unfolding in the control room. "I'm not sure if either of them will give an inch. Players with beast decks are short on fuses and high on power. This could take a while."

Kali was more than holding her own against Matilda who had already lost her troll and had summoned a Vengeful Dead and Gluttonous Zombie to make a charge on Kali who was knocked down when her pyromancer was beaten but she didn't flinch. With her spider holding court, she summons Oathsworn Giant to give her creatures a defensive boost as she casts her Torrent of Fire to deal Matilda some serious damage. Getting back on her feet, Matilda brushes it off and prepares to go again.

"You've gotten better since we first met," she mentions as she prepared five more cards to fire at her. "You're still not strong enough to defeat me though." She charges her mana into five separate cards and prepares to unleash them.

"I am far stronger now than you could ever be," Kali responds as she charges four cards to counter whatever attack Matilda throws out. "You have no idea how hard I've worked to become this strong." Her eyes also started glowing stark white getting Willie's attention as he senses the power jump.

"_That feels like Elena's power,_" Willie thinks to himself seeing his crush grow more powerful. "_I don't think this fight is going to go on for too much longer. At most, I give this thing ten more minutes,_" he thinks as he sees Matilda back up a few steps in total shock.

"You think some glowing eyes are going to scare me then you're nuts," she responds as she casts Terror and Slay on her creatures only to have Kali use two copies of Crown of Awe on both her creatures saving them both. "You can't defend forever you know."

"Don't intend on it," Kali responds as she summons Glory Seeker and a powered up Llanowar Elite. All four of her creatures attack and Matilda tries to defend her creatures and herself but she was too slow with both her creatures being beaten and taking serious damage. Slowly she gets back up and takes off her jacket.

"You think it'll be that easy?" she staggered before charging a huge amount of mana. "See if you can handle this." Her body radiates with mana as the mark on her arm starts to glow very brightly as she charges up her mana. The density of the mana causes her clothes to tear under the strain of the mana. As this happens, Willie cringes as he feels this surge of mana as his Ixidor card starts going stir crazy. Her eyes go stark red as she pulls a card from her deck and summons Kamahl, Fist of Krosa. Jesse's eyes go wide from the door which has stopped moving since the battle outside had ceased and eased over to Willie who's cringing at the amount of mana discharged.

"This is bad man," Jesse mentions to him as they witness what was going on. "We never showed her how to summon a legendary creature."

"I know," Willie responded reeling from the effects of Matilda's summoning. "This summoning could push her past her limit. Plus, I can feel Ixidor itching to get into this." Kali, on the other hand, didn't flinch at all at what Matilda did.

"That's all you got," she back talked getting her riled up. "Then watch _this_." She pulls another card from her deck and radiates the same amount of energy from her body before summoning Akroma, Angel of Wrath. As she comes out, Kali staggers big time from after drain and her eyes return to normal. She slowly gets to her feet. "Now . . . we're even."

In the control room Jonathan and Melanie have been literally throwing each other back and forth across the room as creature after creature is summoned and just as quickly defeated sending them both into mana shock. Jonathan wasn't looking as good as he was earlier as he started suffering from severe mana drain. Melanie was also feeling the effects of after-drain but not as bad. Over half of their decks have been decimated and both of them have taken damage, with Jonathan receiving the better part of the damage.

"I don't know whether to be amazed or scared of this," April says watching the battle unfold holding onto Daniel. As the battle waged on, Nick and Jamie were looking at the monitor that showed the battle in the lobby.

"Man that battle is something else," Jamie says looking at the screen at Matilda and Kali with the legendary creatures that were just summoned. "Between the slugfest in here and the power battle down there, it's hard to say which battle is more interesting to watch."

"I can relate," Nick say looking at the battle in the room as they dodge an effect from a Flamewave Invoker casts by Jonathan and Melanie responded by using Scorching Lava back on him. "These two sisters are something else. I'll have to remember not to cross either one of them for my own safety."

"I hear ya." Melanie gets up from the burn effect and annoyed by the fact that it was a goblin that did it, she casts a charged Barbed Lightning to destroy the creature and finish off the overweight oaf ending the fight. She dusted her hands of the whole thing before sitting down drained from the battle.

"That didn't take as long as I thought it would," Nick added as the rest of the team looked at the monitor on the battle downstairs. Kali was at a disadvantage not having any experience in handling a legendary creature. Matilda had Kamahl attack her directly and she was really getting hammered. Focusing as best she could, she had Akroma fight back but was blocked at every turn. Kali tumbled back at the point of mental exhaustion. Jesse grew more concerned as things transpired.

"She's not going to last much longer," Jesse tells Willie as they sit on a desk in the lobby watching the battle. Willie, sitting with his arms crossed, looked at her with a smile on his face.

"Don't worry about it," he tells his friend with confidence. "I got a feeling this fight won't go on for too much longer anyway. Let's just say you'll get your first look at what Elena looks like shortly." Kamahl tackles Akroma back into Kali and both slam into the wall. Kali is out cold and Akroma fades away as Kali's aura fades rapidly.

"This is not good," Jesse says concerned that this might be the end for Kali. "She's done for if she doesn't get up."

"Wait for it," Willie quietly says as he still senses a power surge coming from Kali. "Now the final round begins." As Matilda sends Kamahl in for the kill, the unconscious Kali's aura starts flaring again but this time her white aura has red and green mixed in with it. Her hair changes from brunette to blonde with green stripes and red tips. Her eyes were stark green signaling that Elena had completed taking over. As Kamahl makes the finishing move, he's blocked and shot back by Akroma, Angel of Fury. Getting up, it's obvious that Elena is not a happy lady.

"Didn't see this coming," Matilda says coming out of her shock. "So finally I get to meet the spirit with the power my master desires."

"You don't deserve to be in my presence witch," Elena shot back angrily as she also summons Kali's Akroma as well. "You overwhelmed her mind. She wasn't ready for the strain that comes with summoning and controlling a legendary creature. Now I'm going to finish you." The two Akromas attack with such speed it was more or less a blur as the next thing that everyone knew, Kamahl had been eliminated sending Matilda into a lethal shock. "How do you like it? Now who's the one overwhelmed?"

"You might have defeated me," she says shaking as she falls to the ground and looks up at Elena in total fear, "but the master . . . will prevail . . . in the end. She . . . will become . . . the all powerful sorceress . . . and take over the world. Madam Misty . . . I've failed," she recites her last words and falls dead after. Willie and Jesse go over to Elena and pull her back quickly.

"She shouldn't have been in that duel," Elena says calming down as her eyes return to normal eyes except they were green. "She wasn't ready for that."

"That's our fault," Willie tells her and they look into each other's eyes. "We never got the chance to show her how to handle a legendary creature before we were called out here. Then again, we didn't count on her even being here much less having a legendary creature with her. Don't blame yourself."

"That's ok. I see what she sees in you. You truly are trusting." Willie chuckles nervously at that comment. "Kali's still low on energy so I'll be out here for the night."

"Fair enough." The elevator bell rings and out comes Jamie's team along with Nick holding up a barely conscious Melanie into the lobby. Willie and Jesse are standing there with Elena as the seven of them gather back up. "Whoa. Do I even want to know what the heck happened up there? With Melanie looking like she just went ten rounds with a boxing champ, my guess is she took on Jonathan by herself?"

"Man that battle was something else," Jamie admitted as Nick nodded in approval. "They went back and forth like crazy until she used some Barbed Lightning and finished them off." Willie just shakes his head in disbelief as Nick notices Elena standing in front of them.

"Good to see you again Elena," Nick greets her as she nods. "What the heck happened down here anyway?"

"Let's just say Matilda here decided to go for broke and summon a legendary creature," Elena responded. "Kali responded summoning Akroma but the strain of maintaining it was too much and then she got knocked out. She even accessed some of my power."

"We'll have to work with Kali some more on that," Jesse admitted as Willie nodded in agreement. "Not to mention we'll have to show Melanie too now that she's one of us."

"Speaking of such," Willie started as he raided Matilda's deck and pulled out her Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and sticks it into Melanie's deck. "I figured that since she's not using it any more, why not give it to Melanie as a reward for defeating Jonathan. Wait until she finds that in her deck. Well, since the fighting's done and this place has been liberated, let's find the employees around here so they can get this place up and running, get us some rooms and have a vacation day tomorrow."

"Sounds good," Elena responded with a smile on her face. "I'm sure you'll enjoy all that Kali has planned for you." Willie chuckles a bit as he hears that.

"What do we do about her?" Amy says pointing to Matilda's body. "We just can't leave it laying here."

"I've got an idea," Elena mentions as she goes and takes Matilda's cell phone and sees that it has a camera on it. "I say we send a message to Misty courtesy of the wizards of Varayan."

"Sounds good," Willie approves as he walks up. "Jamie, go with your team go and find those employees and get all of us some rooms. We need to send our crazy enemy a little message." He nods and they walk off letting the guests do what they need to do.

Misty was sitting in Varayan City Hall not caring what was going on in the city as she turned on the news to hear about how the other groups were doing when she sees a report that catches her eye:

_BREAKING NEWS: Reports are coming into the news station that the mountain resort town of Valderia's Peak has been freed from the control of the Forest Brigade from Livalia. We don't have confirmation on this but we will have more on this breaking news story as it develops._

"Well that's certainly interesting," she says as she pulls out her cell phone to check in with Matilda. Just as she does, she gets a video message that says it's from her and as she sees it it's anything but.

"_Hello Misty. How are things going in Varayan. It's chaotic I'm sure. Oh, before we forget,_" the picture pans to Elena standing above Matilda's body. Misty growls in anger as she sees her number two dead. "_Matilda here didn't survive her rematch with Kali or should I say that she forced Elena to come out and kill her. Wasn't very pretty let me tell ya. Not happy that the other groups know about us but it's all good. The five of us wanted to send you this message not to bother us ever again. By the way, we found her Kamahl card a new home in our newest member. Have fun running a destroyed city and we'll be there to kill you soon enough._"

"Things are looking bad right now," Misty grumbles as she dials a new number on her cell phone. "The master's plan might be in jeopardy. I'd better warn the Livalia leader, Brian, to be on guard."

At the resort, Jamie managed to locate the employees after running off a few of the stragglers that were left. As they got everything going as darkness settled in, the Varayan wizards threw Matilda's body over the side and watched it fall down the mountain into the darkness. They hit the hotels and all found their rooms with Nick, Melanie and Jesse getting their own rooms and Willie and Kali had a room by themselves. Jamie's team had a similar arrangement with the couple in his group getting their own room. They slept in peace knowing that tomorrow was a day of peace and everyone would have some fun.


	7. Stories from Valderia's Peak

_Magic the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 7: Stories from Valderia's Peak

Everyone slept peacefully that night after the multi-tiered battle that took place in the resort that resulted in the liberation of the town and luckily the death of Matilda. Everyone was in their rooms and either resting or sticking to themselves. Jamie's team was fast asleep in their rooms and various activities overtook the guests from Varayan. Melanie was fast asleep in her room as well as Jesse and Nick in theirs. Willie had started back to deciphering the prophecy that he obtained a while back while Elena, who was still in charge of Kali's body, was over him helping with the translation.

"Based on what Matilda said," Willie says looking over the prophecy trying to translate it as best as they can, "Karona has the power of the sorcerers and will grant them to six leaders once she is summoned."

"But looking at the context of the prophecy," Elena says looking at it with him and able to read most of it, "says this: [_Once the home of the god has risen, the one who carries the burden of two of the same shall unleash the power of the sorcerers. Mana from the six areas collects in the temple into a sphere of great power. The two that are opposite of each other shall decide the fate of the power in the sphere._] That's all I managed to get so far."

"True, but the third passage says this: [_The one that houses the two shall infuse the power within the sphere and link it with the flow of mana in the land which the temple sits. This is so the balance can be maintained. If there is no balance, the property of the dominant flow will infuse the two making them one with that flow. The flow of mana from the sphere will take on the personality of the one who holds it. If dark, the flow will distort and radiate uncontrollably bringing the world to the brink of destruction. If the heart is light, then the balance will ascend the person to that of a sorcerer or sorceress._] That's all I've got translated to this point."

"Interesting. However, there are still two more passages to sift through."

"Knock yourself out. I'm so tired my eyelids have eyelids so I'm heading to bed. Turn the lights out when you're done." He heads to bed as Elena keeps on going for several more minutes before turning after getting the second passage figured out for the most part. During the night, another dream sequence envelops both Kali and Elena deep in Kali's subconscious.

"I'm back here again," Kali mentions as she's at some lake deep in her dream.

"Good to see you," Elena speaks up walking up from behind Kali.

"What happened earlier? Last thing I remember was barely able to summon Akroma before banging my head against that wall."

"You got knocked out again but you accessed my power on your own. You have grown nicely as a wizard. After I took over, I finished Matilda off with one shot. Your crush, Willie, took responsibility for what happened as they didn't show you how to handle a legendary creature. Also, after the battle, he took her Kamahl card and stuck it into Melanie's deck as a reward for beating the other guy."

"So my sister has a legendary creature now huh? That's good for her."

"Now I suppose you're wondering why I came to you tonight? Well, I now believe it's time for us to become as one to an extent."

"How do you mean?"

"We'll now share one mind and you have access to some of my power. We can't completely combine yet until that prophecy gets figured out. Willie and I have half the prophecy translated but there's still more to go. We'll complete the partial merge tomorrow night after your date with Willie. He's looking forward to what you have planned for him."

The sun rises on a new day in the resort and everyone rises to a new day. With the day declared a vacation after yesterday's battles, everyone was very lazy to get up and going with the day's missives. The first to emerge from their rooms was Nick. He decided to spend the day near the pools. He has on a black shirt with black swim shorts.

"I'm hitting the pool for some rays and some babes," he mentions as he starts on his way towards the pools. As he's about to take the elevator down to the lobby, Darren comes up behind him with the same idea to hit the pool also. Heading down, the two decide to grab a bite first and discuss their objectives for the day.

"So," Darren starts as they head outside to one of the four pools that the resort has. "Hoping to look at some of those fine young ladies?"

"You know it," Nick confirmed as they sat in two of the chairs poolside and enjoy the bright sunny day. "Being around four other people all the time can wear on your nerves; especially when two of them have insane crushes on each other."

"Now you're talking about Willie and Kali right?" Nick nods while lying back in his chair. "Why are you so hung up on getting them together?"

"It's just something that needs to happen. Ever since we ran out of town, she's been all over him. The way she looks at him when he doesn't notice makes me sick and just the fact that they're always together. I just want them to come out with it already."

"It might not be in their nature. From what it sounds like and what I saw yesterday, they both like each other but are shy about coming out with it. It wouldn't be wise to do anything about it as it could disrupt the chemistry in your group."

"You're right about that. But it's just hard seeing people crushing on each other and not doing anything about it." They look up and see a group of young ladies walking by in bikinis getting a rise out of the guys. They stare for a few minutes until one of them tells the guys to take a picture. "That's the sight I wanted to see today. Let's see how many more pass through and we can get a 'good' look at them."

"Best idea I've heard in the last few days."

Next to emerge from their rooms was Melanie who had fully recovered from last night's battle with Jonathan. She had decided to spend the day sightseeing then hitting the saunas for some more relaxation. Once she got in the lobby, she ran into Amy who had the same plan as she did.

"Good to see you moving around again," Amy welcomes her as they sat down for a morning chat. "After that battle you had, I would've believed you'd sleep most of the day away."

"Thanks for wondering," Melanie smarted as the ladies headed out of the lobby and towards the sauna. "That wasn't too bad for my first battle. That guy really gave me a workout though."

"First battle? That I can't possibly believe."

"Yeah. I was secretly training myself when my sister was getting trained. Some of those nights before we came here I'd sneak out and work on what she did earlier in the day. Before we even left Varayan, I'd sneak out at night and see if I could use my cards like the wizards I see."

"That's amazing. You're a self-taught wizard. You're among one in a rare breed that's for sure."

"I don't think of it like that," Melanie mentions as the girls prepare themselves to enter the saunas. "Everyone had to learn from someone. I mean, there are some things I still don't know."

"That's with every wizard. We think we have it all figured out and then something new comes along that changes all the rules." The girls enter the sauna and chill for the next half hour as the steam envelops them and continue their conversation.

Daniel and April stayed to themselves the entire day in their room and coming out only to walk around the resort and chilling out. He basically worked on both their decks while she made her way to another of the pools. He joins her a short time later and did some swimming before they too lounge out when they spotted Nick and Darren doing the same thing. Deciding not to bother them, they head back inside to change and then hit the movie theaters where they sat in the back row and started making out – again.

Jesse spent the day hanging in the defense hub where the battle was between Melanie and Jonathan made a bigger mess than was originally thought. Since he was the tech specialist, he would work on getting a better view of what's going on in the country as well as develop an more accurate map of the territories that the six groups have. As he worked on getting that picture of the country, Daniel and April, who got kicked out of the theater for making too much noise making out, headed up there to have some alone time when they saw Jesse hard at work.

"Didn't realize anyone was up here," April says as they both watch Jesse hard at work resetting the map of the country. "Want any help with anything?"

"If you two are here to make out again then get lost," Jesse says without looking up at the couple. "I'm not in the mood to go through that again."

"Don't worry, we really want to help," Daniel responded. "We might look like we make out a ton since we got together but we're real good when it comes to tech stuff. So what are you trying to do?"

"Get an updated map of the country and the territory," Jesse responded. "That way we have an idea of what the next step is when we all convene tomorrow. We'll know what we're up against and all."

"I have no problem helping you on that," April added to the conversation. "Your tactician would be thankful for it." The conversation goes on as they get to work getting a new map of the six territories.

Misty had traveled to Rovenia to get an update on how things were progressing there. In an open area of about eighty acres or so, a huge foundation had started to take shape. Slowly but surely, individuals from all six groups around the country were building this citadel that would be finished in a few weeks. Working with them was this huge group of about three or four hundred Assembly Workers. As she walked around the structure that was taking shape, she meets the leader of the Forest Brigade who took over the city of Livalia, Brian.

"Do I have to ask why you asked me out here so early?" she says to him grumpy about the early start. "I'm not to be here until this thing is finished."

"We just wanted to let you know," Brian told her trying to keep her calm remembering her short temper. "The temple is taking shape. The artifact you seek still hasn't been found."

"That thing has to be found if everything is to succeed. The power we all seek is held in that thing," she lies but looks hopeful telling him. "Once Lady Karona arrives, we will be all powerful."

"Can't wait for that. Everything right now is about a week or so ahead of schedule."

"That's excellent news. All we need to do is to find that thing and we'll have everything we need. All the crews are working on it." Their conversation continues as they look at the plans for the citadel that is being built.

Jamie basically slept half the day away and did nothing but enjoy this day of peace. Kali had emerged about twenty minutes before Willie did and went off to make sure everything was ready for her big date. She had three major things she wanted to do today: treat him to a movie, some sightseeing around the resort and a dinner for two in a private booth in a restaurant near the west end of the resort so they could watch the sunset together on the balcony. He emerges from their room wearing a blue button-down shirt with a dragon design and dark blue jeans. As he's about to ride the elevator down to the lobby to see what the others were up to, out of the elevator pops Kali, wearing a white shirt with red and green designs and jeans with black shoes.

"Today you're with me," she smiles to him as she pulls him into the elevator as the door closes. "I've got you all to myself so let's have some fun."

"It's not like I have anything else to do today," he responds shrugging his shoulders as she initiates a lingering kiss that goes until the elevator reaches the first floor. "So it looks like I'm at your mercy so show the way." She drags him towards where the movie theaters were and decide to watch a comedy. They sit in the middle rows as not very many people were watching that day. During the movie, she pretty much lays on his arm like she always did and just enjoyed his company during the movie. Afterwards, as they were walking out of the theater holding hands, they ran into Melanie and Amy who were just out of the saunas and on their way towards more pampering in another of the resort's spas.

"If it isn't the lovebirds," Melanie snickered as she saw them hand-in-hand. "Have you two announced that you're going together yet?"

"Definitely a bit on the blunt side," Willie says shaking his head as Kali steps and pulls her sister to the side.

"I haven't talked to him about it yet," Kali whispers to his sister. "It's something we need to discuss and we will at sunset."

"I'd pay a ton to see that scene. That is going to be so romantic."

"Don't make a big deal of it to everyone. The last thing we need is for everyone else to turn this into a spectacle."

"You got it," Melanie confirms as Willie is talking to Amy about something else that she saw earlier.

"The news says that tons of building materials have been going to Rovenia in the last day or two," Amy tells him with a serious look on her face. "Something big is going down there and another report saw that Misty chick that's giving your group trouble was with our guy Brian talking."

"Tomorrow," Willie says with an idea brewing in his head, "I'll take someone and head over there to take a look. That's an interesting development if you ask me. Find out everything you can and don't tell the others about this. We also have to plan to take your city back." She nods as the friends walk off and Kali drags him towards the outside of the resort.

"You tell him about that news report we saw?" Melanie asked as they went to a beauty shop to get their nails done.

"Yeah I just did," Amy tells her as they wait for their turn. "It was something he needed to know."

Jesse, Daniel and April continued their work on updating the maps of the areas that the six areas control. As they finish their work, they all came to the same conclusion looking at what they have.

"All the territories are about the same size," Jesse commented amazed at that they uncovered. "Based on the map that was already here, the echo map used to map the areas, and what we just did, it looks like all the city halls all connect to a central point."

"They all point to an area in the middle of nowhere," April responded to what Jesse said. "I think that the city of Rovenia is there. Plus, a news report a short while ago said that some kind of citadel was being built there."

"From its location, it might be a point of convergence or something. We'll get into this tomorrow when we all meet up." They all walk out of the hub and down towards the pools to hang for the rest of the day.

Jamie finally made his way to the pools for some swimming. Once in the pools he spots Darren and Nick still lady watching and decided to join them.

"If it isn't our fearless leader," Darren speaks of Jamie as both he and Nick welcome him to one of the chairs near them. "Finally came out for the view huh?"

"If you mean the ladies then yeah," he openly laughs getting some looks from the others especially the ladies who turned away in disgust. "Was it something I said?"

"You really have been out of practice," Darren tells him quieting him down. "We don't announce to the world that we're looking for ladies."

"Oh well. Let's have some fun then." The three sit down and enjoy the day as the day ages into the early afternoon.

Melanie and Amy were still in the beauty shop as they went from getting their nails done to getting work done on their hair. Amy wanted to get her hair braided while Melanie wanted maintenance done on her hair and some blonde highlights. As that process goes on, they talk about recent events.

"It seemed that your sister and Willie seem to fit together," Amy mentions as she goes through the process of getting her hair braided. "They would make a nice couple don't you think?"

"I think that everyone in our group is thinking that," Melanie responds watching her friend as she goes on. "Especially Nick in particular. I think he wants them together more than the rest of us do just as long they don't turn into Daniel and April."

"I hear you on that. When those two got together, if they weren't working on something they were making out like wild animals. After a few weeks, it got plain annoying." They both laugh as the work continues of their hair.

Willie and Melanie are walking around the resort checking out the various attractions and having a good time. She dragged him to a magic show that was happening outside and even volunteered them for a stunt involving playing cards. Then they went to one of the gamer events and checked out what was going on there. After that, they went to a secluded spot that few went to and enjoyed the view of the afternoon sky.

"This is nice," he says admiring the view due to the fact he's always been one to enjoy nature. "I always enjoy looking at nature scenes like this; especially when we're up in the mountains like we are."

"I like any view that likes a romantic feel to it," Kali responds leaning on him enjoying the view. "What makes it even better is that I'm with you." Willie chuckles at that fact as they move on and heads towards the restaurant that Kali had picked for dinner and sunset on the balcony.

Early evening had set in for the resort and everyone had started wrapping up their day. The guys hanging at the pool all headed inside to change and head for something to eat before it got too late. Melanie and Amy, both packing new looks, head towards the buffet line in the restaurant before taking their seats with the guys who got there a few minutes earlier. Jesse, Daniel and April were the next to arrive from another of the pool areas after spending half the day working on the maps together they sit down and discuss what they discovered.

"Come tomorrow its back to business," Darren admitted as they all sat down to enjoy their meal. "That's when we take back our city from that maniac."

"That's right," Jamie responds high-fiving his teammate. "Brian is going six feet under."

"You might want to think twice about that," Daniel begrudgingly responded looking at the group with a disappointed look on his face. "After we updated the maps of the country, it showed something disturbing."

"What would that be?" Melanie asked getting curious about what they said.

"The territories are expanding awkwardly. We'll show everyone what's up tomorrow when we plan out saving Livalia."

"It's a plan then," Jamie confirmed. "By the way, where are your wannabe lovebirds?"

"Knowing Kali she and he are probably in another restaurant somewhere in the resort."

Sunsets at the resort have mystical properties that tend to bring out the heart and soul of those who witness them. According to one of the legends about the mountains, watching the sun go down brings peace to those who see it and a sign of good luck to wizards who are lucky enough to witness it. When the time comes to see the sunset, many people try and get to a good spot to watch the sun itself turn colors and as it dips behind the horizon, it is said that you can actually see the flow of mana from the various cities in the country. There is another rumor that wizards tend to get a bit stronger from seeing the flow as well. In a secluded spot on the west end of the resort, Kali took Willie to one of the few spots there was for an unrestricted view of the sunset.

"You are definitely going to enjoy this," Kali says as the look at the sun as the sunset gets closer with every minute. "I heard these sunsets are one of a kind when you see them from up here."

"I'm sure to enjoy it then," he responds as he leans on the guardrail waiting for the sunset. "I always wanted to see a sunset in the mountains."

"Before that happens, there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"So what's on your mind?"

"How everyone thinks that we should go together. I've had a motive for getting you alone with me today."

"Motive? I don't let rumors bother me anyway although some were more blunt than others. So what was it you wanted to ask?"

"Why don't we start going out? We're both into each other and it would make me happy to see us together and the group."

"If I do something then it's because I want to. I have no interest in satisfying anyone who's interested in my personal life."

"Forget everyone else. This is something that I want. I want to be with you because I want to be. I just feel right and safe around you."

"I see nothing wrong with getting together. We're already as close as we can be. One thing though: promise we won't turn into Daniel and April."

"I promise." She smiles proudly at his choice and the two of them share a kiss to seal their newfound relationship as a dating couple. Still holding each other, they turn and watch the sunset beyond the horizon glow a bluish green color. The color reacts with Willie's aura flaring it up as it absorbs a bit of the energy emitted by the sunset. After the sun goes down, the entrails of the mana from Livalia can be visible but its green mana had blue entrails that he noticed almost immediately.

"The mana flow's messed up," he sees as he feels the blue mana mixed in with the green mana flow. "It shouldn't have only blue mixed in. Plus the flow isn't straight and is very choppy. Something's off big time."

"How can you tell?"

"I just feel it that's all. Come tomorrow I want to check things out in Rovenia. That's the direction the flow appears to be heading." The two head back inside to rejoin the others for an after-dinner party before calling it a night. Everyone danced and enjoyed the end of a day of relaxation as they all adjourned to their rooms for the evening. During the night, another strange dream had Elena and Kali in another conversation.

"So how was your big date," Elena asked her as they chill near a lake in the woods.

"Better than I could've hoped for," Kali smiled emphatically as the two alter egos sat down on a blanket near the trees surrounding the lake. "We're now dating and happier than ever."

"I have been listening to your last conversation. He's right that the mana flow around the country being distorted. I've felt it too."

"What exactly is going on with all of this? I just thought we're doing this to help Jamie's team and find a way to save our own city."

"Apparently there's more going on than what's on the surface. I do believe that come tomorrow we all are going to learn much more."

"Why is there always more to the mystery? What else is there?"

"Based on the second passage of the prophecy I deciphered last night, we might have a much larger problem."

"What did it say to have you both concerned about the mana flow?" Elena takes a sigh of worry before answering.

"The passage says this: [_Once the power lives within the host, that host would feel the sphere calling for it. The sphere can be found only in the light of darkness at the center of the hexagon of power. It can only be found by the ones with the mark of the fallen. If the flow is out of balance, the wielder will be enveloped by darkness spelling doom for the country and world at large. Only when there is balance can the power be held by the one with two of the same._] There's still one passage left that can't seem to be translated."

"Oh well. I guess it's onwards and upwards I suppose."

"On to what I said we would do tonight: merge minds and give you access to more of my power. Just touch my hand and let me do the rest." The ladies touch hands and the power starts growing around and between them as Kali began taking on some of Elena's characteristics. Her eyes went from brown to green and her hair gained blonde highlights and red streaks to differentiate her from Elena. As the power subsides, both of the ladies take a deep breath and finally separate allowing Kali to admire her new look. "So how does it feel?"

"Totally surreal," Kali responded to the feeling of her new power. "Feels like I'm more connected to everything now."

"That was the plan. Now get some sleep. I understand tomorrow is going to be the start of a busy time for all of you."

"Yeah. I suppose you're right."

"Don't worry so much. We share one mind now so if something comes up I can easily jump in and take over."

"Thanks." The dream ends as Kali fades into her own sleep as the night pours on. Her physical body has taken the features that happen in her dream oblivious to Willie who's still trying to figure out the last part of the passage with no success. Out of frustration he throws down his pen and calls it a night.

Brian was in his chambers at Livalia's city hall when an individual wearing a green cloak staggers into his office dripping blood from the face and with a horrible limp approaches the leader. He looked upon his minion with disgust as he got up from his chair, revealing his green and black suit and with Karona's mark on the back of his left hand.

"You're dripping blood in my office," he angrily growls as he looks over his badly beaten servant. "This better be good if you want to live."

"I'm sorry my liege," the minion responds kneeling as the suited Brian walks around looking him over. "Valderia's Peak has fallen into enemy hands."

"Insolent fools!" Brian shouts in total disbelief as he grabbed the minion by the collar to his feet."You let Jamie and his team of misfits defeat over a hundred of my followers? Where the hell is Jonathan? I seriously hope he has a good excuse for this."

"Jonathan is no more. Apparently, Jamie sent out a S.O.S. and another group of wizards crashed the party."

"Another group! Now that's a load of crap. Now where did they come from? Speak up!"

"Apparently they came from Varayan. Jonathan was joined by some woman named Matilda who was sent by her master to kill one of them. She was killed by that group as well. From what I've gathered from survivors, Jonathan was taken down by a newbie. Most of the force you sent to the mountains are now gone. Only less than twenty are left."

"This bites big time. I'm sure Misty is throwing a fit that one of her main servants is dead. Plus, Jonathan is gone too. I'm positive that group will help Jamie try and take back this city," he sounds concerned as he turns to his minion who's still in bad shape. "Head for the healers then contact all the group leaders and tell them to prepare for battle. If their novice wizard was able to take down Jonathan of all people, then we need to be ready for a fight."

"It will be done my liege," the minion affirms before hobbling out the mess that he is. As he leaves, Brian grows concerned about the latest developments and calls Misty up.

"Just so you know your enemies are at my doorstep along with those fools that are a thorn in my side."

"Just don't let them near the power distributor," Misty responds to him hearing the news about where those wizards are. "As far as we know, right now they aren't aware of what we're doing and I want to keep it that way."

"They won't even make it into town. My forces will tear them apart."

"Whatever. Don't underestimate them. They're stronger than you think." She hangs up and Brian shakes his head laughing as he puts his cell phone down.

"Well, I don't care how powerful those wizards are. They'll never figure out how to fix the mana grid before Lady Karona arrives. This world is doomed to an eternity of darkness." He lies back in his chair and relaxes until he drifts off to a sound sleep.


	8. Liberated Disaster

_Magic the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 8: Liberated Disaster

The sun rises on a new day across the country and after yesterday's day of relaxation, the two crews arise and most of them start preparing their decks for the raid that is to come on the city of Livalia. Daniel and April are in the defense hub fine tuning the map they had made with Jesse yesterday as they prepared to share what they found out. Kali was up and about meditating like she always did whilst sporting her new look which she is very proud of. Melanie was in her room adjusting her deck and putting in some different beast cards she had in her collection when she came across the unfamiliar Kamahl, Fist of Krosa that was slipped into her deck. Not thinking too much of it, she kept it in her deck and continued to work on it. Nick also had the same idea to adjust his deck as well putting in some new stuff also. Jamie was the next into the hub where he caught up with his group's lovebirds as they are finishing up fine tuning the map of the country.

"I see we're the first ones here," Jamie speaks up looking around the empty room. "I guess we'll start planning as soon as everyone gets here." They turn around as Nick and Darren enter the room and take their places around the center table with room for ten plus the map on the table.

Willie, Jesse and Amy are riding on the back of Willie's Dragon Tyrant heading towards Rovenia to check out whatever was going on there. Between what Jesse saw on the map he made with Daniel and April, the news report that Amy saw with Melanie, and Willie seeing the distortion of the mana flow last night during and after sunset, it was obvious that something wasn't right and they wanted to find out what. Before sunrise, Jesse went to Willie with what he had learned from the map and it coincided with what he felt the previous night. As they approach the outskirts of Rovenia the construction site comes into view.

"Wow," Willie barely got out as they got a full view of the construction site. "Saying that thing is huge is the understatement of the century."

"I've never seen any construction project that's on this scale," Jesse added looking upon the structure with wonder and amazement. "I mean, why build it here when it could be anywhere?"

"This area is special for some reason," Amy responded as she looked at the site. "Besides, we couldn't do anything about it if we wanted to."

"The whole area is fortified," Willie chimes in looking at the wall-type structure around it. "I'm not familiar with it, but I believe that so called fort is called Darksteel Garrison. It's said to be indestructible." As he observes the site, he begins to sense the huge amount of inflow of mana into the center of the site. "You guys feel that?"

"Yeah," Amy responded as Jesse nodded agreeing. "That is way too much mana draining into this spot to be normal."

"This is what we drew on the map yesterday," Jesse added as he also senses the surge of energy. "It almost looked liked the territories were stretching to this point." As they continue to look on, Willie starts groaning in pain as the collection of mana starts giving him a headache. "You ok man?"

"I will be in a sec," he responds looking discomfortable as he directs his dragon away from the site before they're spotted. "Let's get out of here. We've discovered the source of this mess now let's get back and share it with the others." They leave the area undetected and head back to the resort.

The others had taken their places at the hub as Kali finally made her way in along with her sister Melanie and they take their seats around the table as well. Nick noticed that Willie and Jesse was noticeably absent from the meeting. Those two along with Amy had just arrived back at the resort after the brief trip to Rovenia. The meeting gets going as Daniel and April show the crews the map of the area and what they found.

"This is a current map of the territories with their primary color," Daniel starts out as he shows the six territories and how the mana continues to flow from each of them. "What got us was the way in which it flows from each of the cities."

"It's almost as if something is driving the flow of mana towards something," April mentions as they continued to show what they discovered.

"We know that there is a power distributor somewhere deep in the city," Darren responded. "Somehow they're redirecting the flow towards somewhere for some reason."

"From what I can tell it looks something like this," Melanie figures as she grabs a marker from the table and proceeds to draw a six-point star on the map connecting the six areas. "I studied a while back that the flow has to maintain a constant balance. The way it's supposed to flow allows us to use all five colors regardless of our aura." Just then the door opens and in comes Willie, Amy and Jesse as they walk in on the conversation.

"Too bad the flow has gone to crap city in the last few days," Willie speaks up as he takes a seat next to Kali and the other two take places wherever there were sits.

"Where did you three disappear to this morning?" Nick asked wanting to know why their lead tactician was unavailable for the early part of this meeting.

"We went to Rovenia to check out something that was on the news yesterday," Amy told him while she looks at the map that was created. "This thing that's being built there is going to be huge."

"Not to mention it's exactly as what we figured on the map," Jesse confirmed. "The group leaders are redirecting the mana towards that building site."

"Why's that?" Kali asked as Elena looks on from her subconscious.

"We're not entirely sure but a ton of chaos energy has been thrown into the mix as well," Willie added in looking at the figure that Melanie drew before he and the others walked in. "This figure shows the energy grid as it's supposed to be." Melanie nods with a smile as he goes on. "The figure in the center of the pattern is the grid is what allows us to use all five colors as that energy fills the grid. Somehow that same energy is being distorted allowing the areas to throw their mana into that building site instead of the grid throwing the whole thing into chaos."

"Which explains why there were so many black creatures in Varayan before we ran like pansies," Kali spoke up trying to confirm what was being said.

"Right. Eventually, the grid would break down and the only energy that would be in the world would be nothing but shear chaos."

"Before we got run out of Livalia," Jamie threw in adding to the conversation as things started to make sense to the group, "we had a huge influx of blue mana and there were those who were summoning various wizards with counter effects. We couldn't stand up to that and were forced from town."

"That explains why I felt like I gained a huge power boost last night when the sun went down."

"That still leaves a lot to be explained," Melanie reacts to what was said still looking halfway lost. "What are they building there and what are they looking for?" A bright white light comes from Kali and fades to reveal that Elena has entered the conversation.

"They might be looking for a sphere of power," Elena chimes in to the shock of Melanie. "Part of the prophecy that Willie and I translated mentions something about such an object that can absorb the massive amount of mana being collected at this site."

"Unfortunately," Willie says looking down dejected. "We still don't know what 'sphere' to look for or what it looks like for that matter."

"If I may," Darren speaks as he goes through his collection of cards and pulls one of them out. "I think they might be trying to look for this." He shows them a card with a sphere on it called the Mirari. "Wouldn't this be strong enough to do whatever it is they want to do?" The group goes into a discussion about all of this for several minutes.

"Alright everyone," Willie shouts getting everyone's attention. "Let's see what we have so far. We've got a group of six people who have been brainwashed by either Karona or someone controlling her to build a very large temple in the middle of nowhere. They also had to alter the power distributors and send most of that area's mana into the area in the hope to find some crazy artifact that might not even exist. Before that, they had to infuse a huge amount of dark, chaos energy into these areas to increase the probability of summoning Karona and plunging the country into an eternal darkness. Does that about sum it up?"

"Pretty much," Jamie responded as the others agree one by one and Elena flashes and turns back into Kali. "What does all of this mean?"

"Not too sure. All I know now is that things have gone far beyond saving just our towns now. We need to save them and the country."

"Long story short," Melanie speaks as she stands up and walks towards her sister. "We need to kill all of them and stop the energy from getting over there."

"That brings us to the plan of helping Jamie and his team take back Livalia and put a major dent in the plans of those brainless followers."

"Now things are making sense," Jamie jumps up excited that he gets to give his two cents into things now. "Since we suck at making plans, what the plan for us?" Willie smiles as he begins to go through the plans.

The city of Livalia is surrounded and intertwined by the woods which make the city itself unique from the other five major cities in the country. The city is well known for its air defenses and its wizards primarily use elves and beasts. Some use the other creatures as well making them well rounded. Almost all of the residential areas are in the trees and its green mana supports everything. Some areas of the city appear like other towns but most of the travel is done by walking. In the town's convention center, a huge group of over two hundred green cloaked wizards are gathered in front of the stage. Out comes Brian dressed in a green suit and black tie and flanked by his three strongest in the group: a light skinned individual named Karl, a dark skinned female named Shannon and a light skinned female named Kathy. The crowd is cheering loudly as their leader takes the microphone.

"Members of the Forest Brigade lend me your ears," he starts out as the crowd settles down and takes a seat. "Now is our time. Today we prepare for battle!" Cheers ring out from the crowd as he quiets them down before continuing. "Our enemies are planning to topple our glorious empire, but we won't let it happen. This is our time, our place and this is our moment!" More cheers from the crowd as they get fired up to fight for their leader. "We fight for those who have fallen and who will rise again. Now, go out and defend the honor of Lady Karona and all that we stand for!" The crowd cheers as they all rush out to take their stations and ready themselves for the fight that was sure to come. He then turns to his three strongest. "Make sure those wizards that are with Jamie don't get to either me or the distributor. Now get going." They head out also.

The meeting wraps up in the hub as Willie goes over the plans they all came up with as they prepare to head out to finish getting ready for battle themselves. The discussion had been rather pretentious at times but finally a plan was reached.

"We all agree we have to take Brian out," Willie starts as the group finally settles down to hear the final plan. "But we also have to readjust the power distributor and it will be heavily guarded. So Darren and Nick will deal with Brian and take him out of the picture. Melanie and Amy will deal with the distributor and figure out how to reset it. Jamie and Jesse will eliminate any and all resistance at city hall and aid either team if needed. The two couples will form two separate teams and will aid any wizard who needs it."

"At least that's decided," Darren emphatically says high-fiving Nick as they pair up. "We get to get our hands dirty big time."

"You said that right," Nick affirmed ready for action.

"Ok everyone, we leave in thirty minutes so get your decks ready and we'll meet up in the sky then." Everybody heads out to finish getting ready. In their rooms the two gangs were surprisingly relaxed with everyone moving peacefully yet briskly as they gathered their things and made their way out. One pair at a time they climbed aboard a dragon and when everyone had gathered up they took off. The tree line that surrounded Livalia came into view about twenty minutes later and the group quickly landed.

"From here we have to go on foot," Jamie states as they all disembark and begin the trek towards the city. "Keeps us safe from attackers that might fly in." The group nods before proceeding into the forest. They had not made it a quarter mile before a group of about fifteen wizards jumped from their hiding places in the trees and ambushed the group.

"I guess it's showtime," Jamie alerts everyone as people start searching their decks for cards before Willie steps forward and summons his Aphetto Runecaster.

"Don't bother Jamie," Willie says as he stops him and Kali steps forward with her Glory Seeker she summoned. "We'll handle these guys. Don't waste your energy on this. You'll need it later. Everyone spread out and we'll meet up later." They do just that leaving the two couples to face off with over a dozen enemy wizards. "Alright you guys, let's do this." The battle gets going but it's not even a contest. The dark wizards summoned seven different elves including Timberwatch Elf, Everglove Courier, Tel-Jilad Chosen, and one of them summoned the same elves with a Heedless One. "Looks like the four of us have our hands full."

"Let's get to it then," April responds by summoning a Grotesque Hybrid and Daniel summoned an Ironfist Crusher that can block multiple creatures and casts Inspirit on it. "This won't even take five minutes." The stomping didn't even take that long as the four wizards made quick work of the first line of defense. Once April gave her hybrid flying and protection from green and white, it was a good as done for the enemies as four of them wound up dead and the others ran like pansies. Afterwards, they moved on into the forest and then split up to check out certain areas with Willie and Kali going one way and Daniel and April going the other way.

Nick and Darren were barreling towards city hall to confront Brian with Jamie coming along as he and Jesse separated to back up the two active teams. Walking in the downtown district was easygoing at first until they were intercepted by a mob of wizards hiding in the alleys and balconies of the nearby buildings. Another skirmish and those wizards were taken care of with just about all of them dead with two seriously injured.

"This is going way too easy," Nick mentioned as he and Jesse followed Darren towards city hall. "I'd thought the resistance would be much tougher the closer we get to this guy."

"Trust me," Darren reiterated as he follows a beacon on his communicator as they move on. "It's going to get much harder when we reach city hall."

"How tough is this guy anyway?"

"If you thought Jonathan was tough, you haven't seen anything yet. Brian is a guy who dresses like a gentleman but battles like a beast. His deck is full of powerful creatures that will make your head spin if you're not careful."

"That's why I'm here. I specialize in making players' lives miserable. My deck is set up to tear creatures to pieces."

"It'll take more than that. Dude's got a mouth on him that can throw anyone off his game."

"Then he hasn't met me yet." The two continue with Jamie in tow as they get closer to the downtown area.

Melanie and Amy are having a difficult time finding the location of the power distributor as they searched from one district to several neighborhoods to no avail. Eventually, as they walked down a street next leading to another residential neighborhood, they come across a group of wizards who come out of one of the houses in the trees and are heading somewhere.

"Wonder where they're heading?" asked Melanie as those wizards headed away from them.

"That's strange they didn't either sense us or come after us when we came through," Amy responded as they decided to follow them and see where they were going. "Better see where they're going."

"At least it'll keep us from getting more lost."

"I'm with you there."

Daniel and April were on their part of the rescue mission to aid any fighting wizards they come across in their trek across the tree-wrapped town. They went to their homes and made sure everything was ok there before they went to one of the gathering areas around town. When they reached a children's playground on the south side of town, a huge battle was taking place between a group of wizards and a group of Forest Brigade members.

"Looks like a free-for-all down there," Daniel says as he prepares to enter the fray. "We'd better help them before something bad happens."

"One step ahead of you," April responds as she sends her hybrid, what was still out, into the brawl to help those fighters. "Let's just help them and move on." They enter the battle much to the relief of the fighters as they were able to run off the brigade members. "All of you in good shape?"

"We're ok now thanks to you two," one of them said as everyone gathered their scattered cards. "There's a few of us with some cuts and bruises but other than that we're good." The two begin to take care of the few among the group of fighters that were injured.

"Alright then. If we're done here let's find others who might be in need of help." They all agree and walk off together to search another area.

Willie and Kali had little luck finding any wizards in trouble before becoming completely lost themselves. They went from neighborhood to neighborhood with no luck just seeing a bunch of empty houses. As they enter the shopping district and come across the main mall, the air around them begins to turn into a mist.

"This doesn't seem good," Kali senses as a structure rises to take place around them. "We better get ready for a fight."

"You can say that again," Willie responded as the structure becomes clear around them and he realizes what it is. "Someone just cast the enchantment Phyrexian Arena."

"What does that mean?"

"We basically just walked into a trap." Walking out of the shadows, Kathy is wearing an all black outfit with her deck in her right hand ready to go.

Darren, Nick and Jamie reach the outskirts of city hall only to find the place surrounded by more Forest Brigade members. In front of the doors is Karl, one of the strongest members of the brigade and waiting for the wizards to come his way. All the other wizards surrounding him also noticed as they came up and flared up their auras prepared for a fight.

"It's about time you got here," Karl snarls as he walks through the crowd and toward the three wizards at the front of his guards. "If you think I'm letting either of you near my master then you must have bolts for brains."

"Who's the whackjob?" Nick asks Darren as they prepare for a fight. "With that force behind him this won't be easy getting in there that's for sure."

"That's Karl," Jamie responds as Darren tries to pull back Nick from wasting energy. "He's the number two guy in the brigade and Brian's right hand wizard."

"He looks like he can turn someone inside out."

"That's why he's mine. You two need to get inside and take care of Brian."

"That we can do easily," Darren responded as he summons a Graxiplon to counter the endless number of elves and beasts. Nick responds as well summoning his trustworthy Blastoderm. "Getting in is going to be the easy part."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Nick smirks as he and Darren charge the group of wizards guarding the doors to city hall while Jamie stares down Karl with an angry look on his face.

Jesse had managed to catch up with Melanie and Amy as they followed a group of brigade wizards into an abandoned building in the town's shopping district. The building itself was a warehouse that served to make the items that the citizens of the city rely on for all of their daily needs. The three watch as the wizards enter the building and gather around a tall woman standing next to a strange device that's glowing a dark green.

"That must be the power distributor thing," Melanie suggested as they see Shannon standing next to the device giving orders to her group. "We need to get them away from that thing and reset it somehow."

"I think we should just do it direct," Jesse suggests as they gathered the creatures they would use for the ambush style attack. "I'll take on the lady if you want."

"Wait," Amy says holding up her hand to stop him before he made a move. "I know her the best so I'll take her on. I think that Mel should work on the device."

"Fine by me," Melanie responds. "I'm good with tech anyway so I'll give it a shot."

"I guess then that leaves me the rest of them," Jesse dejectedly states as they all summon various beasts for the raid with him summoning his Frenetic Raptor, Melanie summons her Bloodstroke Howler and Melanie summoning her Brontotherium. "Time to storm this little meeting and get to that thing."

"Let's make it happen," Amy responds as the three ride their creatures right through the front glass doors of the meeting getting everyone's attention including Shannon who looks shocked and angered by what she was seeing.

The smoke cleared at the enchanted arena that Willie and Kali had inadvertently walked into. Kathy walks into the light with an arrogant look on her face as she faces the two wizards. Her deck is a blue/green deck consisting of elves and wizards and some nasty counter cards in them.

"I should welcome you to our wonderful city," she starts out with her arms stretched out and oozing with confidence. "My name's Kathy and this . . . is my playground."

"Like we care about your little playground," Kali snaps back but Willie pulls her back with a very serious look on his face shaking his head not to engage.

"Don't make a move," he tells her stepping forward. "She's playing with wizards and I'm sure she has some counter spells in her deck. I'm going to take her on. Just hang back and let me handle this one."

"Oh aren't you the strong one," Kathy back talks to him as she flares up her aura as he flares up his aura as well as the stare down continued. "Can't wait to see what you can do."

"I know I can take this little loudmouth," Kali pouts as Willie turns around and tries to reassure her that he can handle this one.

"I'm sure you can," he tells her in a whisper. "However, she's has the same power level as Matilda did and even though you're stronger, I'm the only one who knows how to deal with the creatures in her deck. Just hang back on this one ok?"

"Since it's you I'll back down. Take no prisoners." He nods and turns to face Kathy as she pulls a card from her deck.

"How about we get started huh?" Kathy says pulling a card from her deck. "I'll start you out easy and summon an Ana Disciple."

"Now I'm insulted. I still have my Aphetto Runecaster out." The battle begins between those two in earnest as their wizards do battle.

Jamie managed to run interference by facing Karl as Nick and Darren made like bulldozers heading to the doors of city hall. Karl's deck is nothing but power and not much of anything else. He's won many duels with said power and without a need for other kinds of cards although he has them in his deck. Jamie, standing strong with his Elvish Pathcutter, Fangren Hunter and Wirewood Guardian, was surprised that Karl was using all power creatures such as Titanic Bulvox, Glade Knarr and Krosan Tusker.

"You still have no understanding of strategy," Jamie says as he charges his pathcutter's ability to all of his creatures. "Try this on for size." The creatures attack him by bypassing his creatures doing some serious harm to him. Not phased by the attack, Karl gets up and shrugs off the shock of the attack and counters with his own.

"That was nothing compared to what I can do," he snarls back at Jamie as he sends his creatures to attack only to have them blocked. "That was luck you stopped that. You won't stop what I've got planned for you."

Amy had gotten Shannon's attention by storming the meeting involving all of the brigade members. Jesse and Melanie made their way toward the power distributor only to find it surrounded by over two dozen wizards and some of them had summoned Symbiotic Elf and Symbiotic Beast.

"Why can't anything be simple?" Melanie shakes her head that another fight was about to emerge. "We better take care of these things so we can get to work."

"I'll take care of them," Jesse tells her as he has his raptor go to work on them. "Just see about that device and getting it reset." Melanie nods as she goes on as Jesse deals with the wizards surrounding the machine by recalling his raptor and summoning his two Avarax. Shannon had summoned a Gigapede to go against Amy's howler near the door.

"There's no way that I'm letting you stop me," Shannon says as the two girls prepare to throw down. "You're welcome to try if you want."

"Stop you," Amy snaps as she sends her howler to attack and it does and destroys the insect. "I'll kill you so fast you won't even have time to breathe." Recovering from shock, Shannon summons her next creature in a Territorial Baloth.

Willie is standing strong against Kathy in the enchanted area as Kali watched from behind him enthralled by the battle. He had summoned five morph creatures flanking his wizard already in the fight and Kathy, who had already lost her first creature, summoned a Glintwing Invoker and Serpentine Basilisk. She was surprised to say the least when she laid eyes on the morphs.

"I didn't think that anyone could summon colorless creatures," Kathy stated with her hands on your waist. "You truly must be something else."

"I try," he smarts as he has his runecaster, enchanted with Dragon Wings and powered by the Patron of the Wild he revealed before that, make another attack only to have it destroyed as it took out the basilisk. He suffers mild shock but recovers and awaits her next move.

"You're going to have to try better than that. Now that you're only flyer is out of the picture it's now time you felt some real pain." She uses her power to charge up her invoker giving it flying and a power boost and have it make an attack on the blue wizard. As it moves in, Willie wastes no time in using his power to reveal another of his morphs into Frontline Strategist stopping the attack in its tracks.

"You were saying," he says with a smile on his face. "Looks like you're the one that needs to try harder."

"You're going to pay for that," she angrily responds and summons a Cephalid Pathmage and then sacrifices it again making her invoker unblockable. Then she recharges her invoker and it attacks again and for an added touch, she also summons Ghosthelm Courier and uses its ability to target her invoker. Willie is hit hard by a powered up wizard and the shock of it sends him doubled over in pain.

"Oh man did that ever hurt," he groans in pain as he gets back up not realizing he's suffered a major injury to the midsection. "Now I'm mad." Kali continues to look on scared that her man might be hurt but stays out of it as it's a one on one contest.

Jesse continues to fend off the insect tokens that came from the elf and beasts he defeated earlier as Melanie tried to see if she could get the distributor reset to stop the amount of chaos energy flowing through it. She was having little luck as the amount of energy going through it was more than she thought it'd be.

"There's too much energy flowing through this thing," she panics as she continued trying to figure the thing out. "There must be some crazy battles out there."

"I can sense them for one thing," Jesse yells back as his raptor finishes off the last of the beasts and has gone on to deal with the other wizards who were summoning elves and other strong beasts to combat his raptor. "Feels like three other battles going on around the city and two of them are at city hall." Amy is pushed back as Shannon starts getting the upper hand in their duel.

"Like I said earlier," Shannon states confidently as she sends her baloth to attach her again. "You never stood a chance against me."

"I'd like to differ," Amy responds as she summons both a Ravenous Baloth and Enormous Baloth. "You haven't seen anything yet." She uses three copies of Accelerated Mutation to power up all of her creatures and they attack all at once. Shannon manages to summon two Barkhide Maulers and another insect in Nantuko Disciple. Unfortunately they didn't stand a chance as they were all beaten sending her into shock before collapsing. "I guess it was you who didn't stand a chance against me." Shannon tries to get back to her feet only to have Amy finish her with a Spire Barrage. The trickle of blood from her signaled her end.

In front of city hall Jamie and Karl were deadlocked in their duel. Jamie had an army of beasts out with his Fangren Hunter including an Elvish Pathcutter, Elvish Aberration, Fangren Pathcutter and a Berserk Murlodont. Karl, who's still single-minded only on power, had managed to summon one of his favorite creatures in Avatar of Might. He had a few others out but they didn't last.

"Haven't you learned anything about strategy?" Jamie asked him as he sent his creatures in to attack.

"I'll show you what I've learned all right," Karl responds as he casts the spell Slice and Dice on all of Jamie's creatures weakening them but not taking them out as he luckily casts Muscle Burst and Giant Growth on his weaker creatures saving them. As they're recovering from that attack, the avatar strikes destroying three of the creatures sending Jamie into a mild shock.

"Now you've done it," Jamie insisted as he staggered back to his feet. "You have managed to really make me mad. Now you're finished." He focuses into a new card and summons Ancient Ooze – a creature that gets power from all other creatures he has. The ooze wasted no time in finishing off the avatar and the other three creatures went to lunch on Karl – not a very pretty way end to this duel. Finally able to relax, Jamie heads inside to check up on Darren and Nick.

In an upstairs room inside the building, Darren and Nick managed to find Brian after an exhausting search and the battle was already going. Brian already had out seven beast creatures but lost three of them to Nick's Blastoderm and Darren's Graxiplon. Brian, not to be outdone, casts a Fireball on Darren's creature destroying it and Nick responds to it by casting a combination of Brainspoil and Dark Withering to take out two of Brian's remaining creatures. Recovering from the shock, Brian puts on a smile on his face.

"You might have gotten past my guards and my henchman," he starts as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a necklace with a crystal hanging from it and puts it on. "But I'm a different animal. Prepare to face my wrath you foolish morons!" The necklace glows and his power grew exponentially. The look on Nick and Darren's faces said it all as Brian's aura gained a full dark green glow. "Now see if you can defeat me," he laughs maniacally as he goes into a separate deck holding cards in his collection before summoning an army of creatures including another Avatar of Might, Berserk Murlodont, Elvish Aberration, Wirewood Guardian, Brontherium, Battering Craghorn, and Crested Craghorn.

"We're in serious trouble," Darren stammered out as Jamie joined the action shocked at what he was seeing. "I don't know if we can handle that kind of power."

"We have to try and get rid of this guy," Jamie says coming behind the guys. "Remember, we have to put a dent in the plans of the 'Karona 6'."

"No chance of that happening," Brian laughs as his creatures attack. "I'm the strongest in the brigade you fools! You're only dreaming if you still think you can win." The three wizards press their attack against him only to be pushed back with Nick's Blastoderm being destroyed causing him a slight shock while Darren's Graxiplon remains unharmed. Nick proceeds to take out the power crazed man with direct attack spells that seem to do some good but he doesn't feel it.

"He's lost it," Nick points out as he attacks with a Fireball spell he whipped out of his collection and it hits its mark. "That much damage and he isn't harmed."

"We're going to have to think about this one. It's obvious that crystal is the key to his power. We're going to have to take it if we're going to beat him." The three continue to dodge attacks while lauching their own against his creatures.

Willie had gotten back to his feet against Kathy who was still wailing on him with her Glintwing Invoker even though he had a gashing wound in his chest. His aura still strong after two of his morphs were destroyed, he brought out two more in their place as his new creature Primal Plasma, which he had summoned as a flyer, continued to get blows in on her.

"This chick is one tough nut to crack," he says gasping for air as the injury is starting to get to him. "It's time to break out the big guns – morph creature, reveal!" He sends his mana into one of his morph creatures and turns into one of his deck's staple creatures in Root Elemental. He uses its magic to bring out his trustworthy Dragon Mage and he enchanted it with Dragon Fangs. "Now let's try this – attack!" The dragon does just that taking out the invoker and causing a shock to Kathy who shrugs it off.

"Lucky shot," she snarls as she charges her mana and summons a Slipstream Serpent to go against his dragon wizard. "You won't get that lucky again. Now I cast Frozen Solid!" His mage is frozen in a wall of ice as her serpent in to attack thus destroying it and taking a huge bite out of his midsection. The shock plus the attack sends him to the ground again. Kali grows more concerned as things have proceeded.

"_I hope he's alright,_" she thinks watching the battle unfold before him."_He's really not looking too good right now._" The battle goes on as Willie gets back to his feet staggering a bit and counters her move by casting Backslide on his elemental turning it back into a morph creature before summoning another morph also.

"If that's all you have," Kathy says ready to end things, "then you're done for," she smirks sending her serpent in for the kill. Willie, on the other hand, had a smile on his face.

"Not that simple," he states as he reveals his elemental for a second time allowing him to summon a Serendib Sorcerer and uses its ability to weaken the serpent and then he revealed a Shaper Parasite to finish it off. "That would be called a trap. Now for my counterattack." He them summons a Sparkmage Apprentice to attack and his elemental shapeshifter does the same thing knocking her to the ground. Willie staggers again from the pain of his earlier injuries.

"Now it's time to take it to the next level," she smirks as he wonders what the heck she's talking about. She takes out a crystal necklace and puts it around her neck. Her aura reacts to it and it increases her power ten-fold. "Now it's time for the real show to begin," she cackles insanely.

"Kali you should get back," Willie tells her as he charges his mana to full power. "This is going to get ugly real fast." She gets back as he reveals his second Root Elemental thus allowing him to summon his legendary creature in Ixidor, Reality Sculptor. "This power is insane. There's no way she's going to be able to maintain it for long."

"You have no chance now. Prepare to die." She summons a Ravenous Baloth, enchanted it with Yavimaya's Embrace, and sent it to attack. Willie has the right mind to equip Ixidor with both Loxodon Warhammer and Neurok Hoversail. The resulting battle had the baloth being toast and Ixidor standing strong. "You got lucky there. Try stopping this: I summon three more Slipstream Serpents and Cephalid Pathmages." She got rid of her pathmages making her serpents unblockable and sent them to attack.

"This is going to hurt," he muttered to himself as all three serpents attacked him right in his injured spot on his chest. They jacked him up into the air bashing on him as one last hit sent him to the ground with a loud thud. The mana shock combined with the attack put him close to death with extensive internal injuries that left him barely able to move. His power was severely drained and the wild fluctuation in his aura was felt all over the city.

At the warehouse Jesse and Amy were still fighting off the remains of the brigade in that sector as more of them came out of the woodwork trying to avenge their fallen leader. Melanie was still trying to figure out how the thing works when the thing violently flashed and they felt an energy level drop like a rock.

"What the living daylights was that?" Melanie asked as she got the feeling that something had happened along with the other two as they were fighting. "It felt like someone's dying or something."

"I felt it too," Jesse responded while his Avarax and his Frenetic Raptor were cleaning house. "It was Willie we just felt. His energy dropped rapidly all of a sudden. That didn't feel right. Something's wrong."

"I've tried contacting my sister but her com's seemed to be blocked."

"We need to get to them and see what's going on," Amy suggested as she too was fighting off the hordes. "Wonder how things with Darren and Nick are going."

"I'm sure they're having one whale of a time," Jesse insisted. "They always wanted to be in the middle of the action. Right now my main concern is what's behind Willie's sudden drop in power."

"It's got me on edge as well," Melanie responded as she continued to work on the device and going nowhere fast. "I hope Kali is holding up alright."

Darren and Nick were having the time of their lives going up against Brian. Nick had cast Profane Prayers on one of Brian's creatures destroying it and going for the next creature when they all felt the pulse of an aura power dropping faster than a meteor crashing to the ground.

"What was that I just felt," Jamie asked as all four of them in the room felt the energy pulse from somewhere. "That felt like someone just bit the dust."

"I know what it was," Nick said dejectedly as he continued the fight. "It was Willie. His aura is fading fast. I have no idea what's going down on his end but it can't be good if his power is all but gone."

"He must've met another of my associates who has a crystal like mine," Brian smirks as the battle goes on as he sends another monster to attack. "He's probably already dead for all we know."

"You better take that back." Nick casts Smother to destroy another creature and summoned He then summons a Sewerdreg to go after him and try and get that crystal to no avail as one of the beasts swatted it back.

Daniel and April were still gathering fighters they came across as they went from neighborhood to neighborhood helping anyone who needed it and at the same time getting them all to someplace safe until everything could be taken care of. As they went down another street, they also felt the power flux but is unsure where it came from.

"That was strange," Daniel felt as he and April were walking along a group of fighters they had just picked up from another part of town. "Someone's aura power just dropped flatter than a pancake."

"I have no idea who it is," April commented as she tried to focus to see who it was they were sensing. "I got nothing. We need to check out the mall when we finish in this area. That's where it came from." They both nodded and continued on their search of the last of the residential areas.

Kali is standing behind the motionless Willie with the look of total fear on her face as Kathy's serpents are holding her turf. She has also summoned a Fugitive Wizard to raid his deck figuring that he was already dead. Unfortunately, before she got a chance, Ixidor moved in and destroyed the wizard with one blow.

"Impossible," Kathy looks on in disbelief as Willie started moving to get back on his feet even though he was badly hurt and his power was almost gone. "He shouldn't be alive much less be able to move and maintain control of his creatures." Indeed, he still had Ixidor and by now one morph creature still out. He struggles to get back to his feet and as he's doing so, he's gushing blood from his abdomen and coughing up huge amounts of blood with every motion. His facial expression made him look like he was still out of it as blood is dripping from a gash on his forehead.

"I'm not . . . (_coughs blood_) finished . . . yet," he staggers as he clutches his chest in extreme pain. "I still have . . . (_coughs up blood again as he falls to a knee_) a few moves left . . . up my sleeve." He maneuvers his bloodied hand toward his deck and scrolled up his ace in the hole and another combination that'll finish the fight. Kali looks on in horror as he flares up what little power he has left and groans in pain as the energy is burning his wounds forcing him down to his knees as his body starts giving out.

"He's not going to last," she whispers to herself as tears come to her eyes feeling his life energy start slipping away. "He's so determined to win he'll do whatever it takes. I can't watch this anymore." She starts crying as Elena looks on from her subconscious.

"You're barely hanging on and you say you have some moves left," Kathy says angered that he's still alive much less moving. "Maybe this time you'll stay down – serpents, finish him off!" Kali cringes as those serpents attack him but it fails miserably.

"I cast . . . Choking Tethers," he chokes out as more blood comes from his mouth and focuses as best he can as he starts to fade. The creatures are bound by chains; and with his last gasp of strength, makes his final move. "Go Ixidor and finish this." He does but Kathy summons an Elvish Aberration to protect herself. "Not this time," he barely gets out as he musters up whatever strength he has left and plays his ace. "I cast Decree of Savagery!" Ixidor is suddenly powered up but the crippled wizard wasn't done yet. "I reveal my last morph creature – Mischievous Quanar . . . (_groans in pain_) and his ability copies the decree card I just used." The beast finishes off the elf mutant and Ixidor goes and finishes her off smashing the crystal around her neck sending her into power overload breaking her mind killing her instantly. Willie lets out a smile before the pain becomes too much and he collapses from the strain. His creatures disappear as Kathy's enchantment starts wearing off.

"Oh no," Kali yells as she runs over to him with tears coming down her face. "Please be ok. Come on wake up . . . please." There was no response. His body is radiating from the lack of energy almost as if he's going into shock. "It can't end like this. I still need you." With the enchantment now gone, she dials up everyone else on the team to get them over here to see if they can save him.

At city hall, the battle was still going strong but Nick, Jamie and Darren were rapidly approaching their limit against Brian who seems to have no end. Growing more frustrated, the three of them went after the crystal he was wearing and every time they were thrown back. As they contemplated their next move, Nick's communicator buzzes and it's Kali with bad news.

"What's up kid?" Nick asks her and he sees the tears coming from her eyes realizing what it is. "It's Willie isn't it?"

"It's not good," Kali responds sniffling to keep from breaking down completely. "He won his duel but . . ."

"Say no more. Get Jesse over there and we'll be along just as soon as we finish here." They hang up and he turns to the other two guys looking at him curiously. "Willie's hurt pretty bad and judging by Kali's face, he might be dying. We need to end this and get over there."

"Can't waste anymore time here," Jamie responds to Nick's concern. "Let's finish this creep and see about your friend." The attention is turned back to the battle with Brian and with renewed vigor, Nick unleashed a second Blastoderm and a Vengeful Dead while Jamie sends his ooze in and Darren uses Essence Fracture and Temporal Fissure to take care of the creatures and the creatures managed this time to smash the crystal around his neck sending him into overload crushing his body killing him in seconds. "Now that's done let's get to Willie and see what we can do." They run out the way they came and head to where Kali made that transmission.

Melanie was still stuck on the distributor when a wave of energy came through it dispelling all of the darkness around the city but left the distributor unchanged from its current position. Jesse and Amy, who had finally dealt with the last of the resistance, came to see if they could help even though they were exhausted. Right at that moment, Melanie's communicator buzzes and it's her sister finally checking in.

"Hey sis," Melanie speaks relived to hear from her; however, Kali's tears told the entire story. "What's wrong?"

"It's . . . not good," she stammered before breaking down crying out as she turns her communicator over to show them Willie's bloodied and battered body shocking the three in the warehouse. "Elena can't heal him and . . . I don't know what else to do. He might be . . . I can't say it."

"Don't worry sis," Melanie reassures her as they get up. "We're on our way. We'll be there in a few minutes." They end their chat and everyone starts gathering up their things. "My sister needs me right now."

"We know," Amy responds as they all head out as Jesse looks at the distributor. "Don't worry about that thing as it's not important right now. My team will deal with it later. Right now you have a teammate that needs you more."

"Right," Jesse responded as they all storm out of the warehouse on the creatures they came in on.

Elena had tried to heal Willie's injuries with no success and even she was baffled why she couldn't heal him. It was obvious he was still alive albeit barely. It was almost as if the shock of the battle had drained most of his mana.

"I don't understand why my healing powers aren't working," she questions herself as she continues trying. "I've managed to stabilize him but that's all." She changes back into Kali who's still distraught as Daniel and April, still wondering about what they felt earlier, arrive at the source and see the grim sight.

"Oh my . . .," April grimaces as they see Willie lying in a heap with Kali over him in tears. They also noticed Kathy's corpse as well. "This doesn't look good." They go over to comfort Kali as Daniel tried to treat his injuries which are numerous.

"His injuries are internal and extensive," Daniel gathers overlooking him in his weakened state. "He's lucky to be alive." Kali shakes her head dejectedly as Nick, Darren and Jamie roll up onto the scene. Within the same minute Melanie, Amy and Jesse also arrive at the mall parking lot and see a sight out of pure horror. Kali breaks down again as her sister consoles her.

"It'll be ok," Melanie tells her as Kali continue to sob as the others contemplate their next move. "We'll get him some help."

"We need to get him to a healer and fast," Jesse commented after looking him over and came to the same conclusion that Daniel did. "He won't last long at this rate."

"There are healers back at the resort from all over the country at their hospital," Jamie suggested as they had to figure out how to get him there. "They should be able to get him back on his feet – I think."

"Then we need to get him out of here," Melanie reiterated as she gets her sister to her feet and they walk into the conversation the others were having. "First off is he even stable enough to even make the trip back to the resort." A bright flash of light from Kali shows that Elena has taken over her for the moment. "I'll never get used to that."

"I've tried healing him," Elena tells the group with the same dejected look on her face as she goes on, "but I can't even heal his injuries much less his aura. It's almost as if he's blocking it for some reason. He is stable enough to return to the resort but that's about all I can do for him."

"At least you tried," Nick told her as she nodded. "He just needs more help than we can provide."

"Alright already," Melanie says ending the discussion. "Let's get him out of here. The sooner we can get him help the faster he can get healed."

The gang manages to find a means of transporting their crippled friend and all climb onto their dragons and head back to the resort to find a means of helping their lead tactician recover from his injuries. Getting there, he is immediately rushed into the medical room with the healers and they begin their efforts to heal him. As he's rushed in, the group sits in waiting as Kali continues to crying while gaining support from Melanie and Amy.

A short time later as darkness set in, the two teams are still concerned about their friend when the head healer of the resort comes out shaking his head with disappointment with some shocking news.

"The kind of healing he needs is beyond us," the doctor says causing Kali to break down again. "Our healers can't even heal his injuries much less regenerate his aura. His power's all but gone plus his aura has a baseline structure we've never seen before."

"How's that even possible," Jesse asked wondering what he was talking about.

"We'll discuss it more in the morning," the doctor responded. "Right now you all need to rest after your busy day."

"What do we do now," Melanie asks as her sister runs out of the medical building. "I'm at a loss."

"We'll figure it out in the morning," Nick responded. "For now, we do what the doctor says."

The team decides to sleep on it since he's stable enough to go through the night. Jamie and his team say their goodbyes as they return home to deal with the distributor and restore order to their city. The remaining four wizards have no idea on how to proceed knowing that their friend is still in need of help they don't have the slightest idea on how to provide.

A green cloaked individual, who snuck out of town when the whole thing went down, made his way to the Misty's place in Varayan to send word of Brian's defeat and the other events that have happened. The moon rises over the country as the minion made his way into the basement of Misty's apartment to reveal what happened.

"Pardon my intrusion madam," the minion starts kneeling out of respect. "Our leader Brian has been killed by those wizards you warned him about."

"Figures," she smirks knowing something like that might happen to him. "What else do you have to share with me?"

"A bit of good news actually if you can call it that," the minion lightens up in his expression. "One of my sources report the power distributor remains at the settings that were put on it by Brian at your orders although we don't know how long that'll last with the chaos inducer now gone, but the best of all is that one of your enemies seems to be down for the count."

"Really now? I wonder which one it is."

"Their blue wizard was severely injured in a duel with one of our strongest. They think he might not make it through the night."

"Thank you for that now out." The minion gracefully heads out and back towards town. "Well, looks like those meddling fools are going to be down for a while with an injured team member. They might try and find a healer now but they'll be hard pressed to find one." She laughs and dials up another number on her cell phone.

"Hello," a female voice answers on the other end.

"How's my little protégé doing on this evening?" she asked. "Hate to call you like this but it seems you're about to have some troublesome visitors." The conversation goes on deep into the night.


	9. Search for the Rainbow Healer

_Magic the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 9: Search for the Rainbow Healer

Daybreak gives way to a cloudy, foggy morning at the resort as the crew, except for Kali who was off by herself, made their way towards the medical building to get an update on their fallen member's condition. From what they were told yesterday, healing Willie was going to be next to impossible due to the baseline structure of his mana aura. No one knew what the doctor meant when he said that but they had to find out. Upon their arrival to the medical unit, they ran into the doctor and the conversation ensued on what he meant by what he said the previous evening.

"There's been no change from the previous night," the doctor reiterates what he said previously. "He's stable, but our healers have no idea how to go about healing his injuries or his aura."

"That's some good news," Melanie says relieved as she stayed in the conversation. "My sister's been a wreck since last night."

"You said something about his baseline aura," Jesse started to ask the question that has kept him baffled through the night. "What did you mean by that?"

"It's like this," another male healer came forward who had knowledge of the various structures of mana auras. "Every wizard has a baseline structure for his mana aura. Most of them are based on the five main colors of red, white, blue, green and black."

"We already know that," Nick confirmed looking at the healer with a bit of content as he went on. "So what makes his different from ours?" Kali comes into the room still looking dejected as she listens in on the conversation.

"You see, Varayan wizards have a baseline aura structure that goes with red mana. That's why only those kinds of healers are more effective with wizards from there although they can heal just about anyone and the rule is the same with the other nations as well."

"That still doesn't say why you can't heal him," Kali shouts out in frustration as tears come to her eyes in frustration. "If there's a point to all of this, just make it already."

"Willie's baseline aura structure is based on pure blue mana which makes it very tricky to deal with. Plus, the fact that he was all but out of power when he got here."

"I meant to ask this last night but what exactly happened to him?" Melanie asked as Kali began explaining to everyone the events that transpired in the parking lot of the mall.

Misty was back at the construction site for the temple that had begun taking shape with the around-the-clock work that was going on. With Brian now gone and no clue on the fate of the power distributor in Livalia, she decides to accelerate things and as she directs the guards to speed up the workers, a young light-skinned female wearing a blue dress and heels walks up and greets the focused leader.

"You know that worrying is no good for your complexion," the young woman mentions getting Misty's attention. "Something's got you bugged so what is it?"

"Nice to see you too Evelyn," Misty sees her and they embrace. "I have reason to be concerned since Brian was taken out."

"That arrogant jerk was always too big for his head. He talked a big game but couldn't back it up for nothing."

"You're right about that. About that matter we discussed last night?"

"I've taken care of it like you ordered. Most of Kirtren's healers have been rounded up like you asked but we might have another problem."

"What would that be?"

"The rogue wizards from the surrounding areas have been causing trouble even before the uprising."

"Don't worry about it. They are no concern to us. The more chaos energy we have the better our chances for summoning Karona in the end. We already have enough green chaos mana before that moron was eliminated."

"At least that's a plus in all of this. Now I have to get back and make sure those rogues don't overrun my troops."

"Fine then, go. I'll send some of mine with you to back up your troops." Evelyn nods as she heads off along with a group of Varayan wizards to help her maintain control of Kirtren. As they left, she told one of them, another female, to keep an eye on her before she ran off to catch up with the group. "There's something about her that says she can't be trusted."

Kali had told everyone everything that transpired the previous day involving Willie and the foe that he faced and barely beat. She even gave him a few pieces of the crystal she had gathered that Kathy had around her neck that amplified her power. Even the others were shocked at the things that she told them regarding the battle that took place.

"That's about the gist of it," she told him turning to the door to walk out. "I don't like to talk about it too much. It wasn't a pretty sight."

"I understand," the doctor responded watching her leave the room. "No one should have to see something like that battle or not."

"It's hard to fathom what she saw and he went through," Jesse shakes his head in disbelief at the story he had heard. "Must've been some show."

"Back to the matter at hand," the doctor and healers stepped up to the group. "Willie's aura may be blue by nature, but his structure is consistent with that of rainbow wizards. He can only be healed with magic from all colors at once."

"That makes no sense," Nick responded as he contemplated what he had heard. "I thought that healers could heal any wizard regardless of aura. Now you're saying that there are actually rules? I don't believe it." A bright flash of light comes from outside and Elena walks into the room overhearing the conversation.

"Structures like his are tricky to deal with," Elena says standing next to Nick as she goes on. "Although it's true that healers can heal any wizard from anywhere, wizards whose structures are rainbow based can only be healed by rainbow wizards. They have the ability to draw the necessary energy from the grid itself. That energy is way more potent than any single color healer can handle."

"I see where you're coming from," Jesse inserted realizing something from a while back. "Yesterday when Willie took Amy and me to Rovenia to check out that construction site, he got quite a migraine from the energy collecting there. Once we got away from that area, he was fine."

"That proves it then. He couldn't stand that much energy at once due to the fact he's sensitive to it. Since his baseline aura structure is rainbow-based and he's a blue wizard, we need a rainbow healer to take care of his injuries since they are so extensive."

"Of course," Jesse finally remembers snapping his fingers and looking at Nick who's wondering what he's on about. "Remember back when we first met him, he said that he was originally from Kirtren. He didn't get into the game until he came to Varayan and met us. I can't believe I almost forgot about that."

"Now that you mention it," Nick catches on to what Jesse was getting at. "I remember him saying that Kirtren was home to both blue and rainbow wizards. Some who have healing capabilities go there to learn how to use their powers to heal wizards and regular people."

"So we need to go to Kirtren and get a healer to come here to treat his injuries."

"Not that simple," the doctor chimes in still hanging about. "When the uprisings happened, most of the healers were captured by the group that took over there and taken away to some location. It won't be easy to find one over there." A buzzer goes off in Willie's room signaling something was wrong so the doctors break off and run over there to see what it was. He had gone into another severe mana shock that the doctors had to struggle from getting shocked themselves. The others developed a plan on their next move.

"So we need one of those healers from Kirtren?" Jesse mentions seeing the doctors rush into their friend's room. "The only question is who's going over there?"

"It can't be either you or me," Nick says trying to figure out the situation. "We need some muscle around here in case of an ambush. Now that we're down a team member, we need to make our moves carefully. We can't afford to stretch ourselves too thin right now."

"Plus we haven't recovered from our most recent battles. I know we used up a lot of energy and still need to recover the best we can. I'm staying to back you up since we make a good team."

"Kali's too out of it to do anything but be by his side," Elena adds to the discussion shaking her head still feeling her alter-ego's distress. "I can't get her to talk about what she's feeling much less try and help out with our current problem."

"Guess that leaves me then," Melanie stands up proud and throws on her green and black jacket ready for action. "I'll go and find a healer that can help. I can't stay around here much longer without going stir crazy."

"It's not like we have much choice," Jesse shows her a map of the area and points out the best route. "Kirtren's due east of here and it looks like a ninety minute trip by air. Once there, find a healer and get back as soon as possible."

"I got it. Be back as soon as I can." The doctor comes out with a concerned, scared look on his face as he approaches the group.

"He's not going to last another day at this rate," the doctor says in a panic as he turns to head back in there with the healers. "Whatever you're trying to do, I'd say you have at least eighteen hours." The doctor heads back in and Melanie heads out knowing she has a time limit.

Riding on the head of her Kilnmouth Dragon, Melanie has her eyes closed hoping that her sister will be okay while she's on this urgent errand. As she opens her eyes relaxed and enjoying the ride, the city of Kirtren comes into view over the horizon.

Kirtren is a technologically advanced city with all sorts of futuristic buildings and technology. Entering the city gives way to most things automated including the walkways, doors to the various buildings and the overall futuristic feel to the city. The skyscrapers tower upwards of eighty stories and one particular building, The Sonic Shockwave Tower, towers 105 stories. The very top of the tower holds the city's power distributor and it radiates blue mana like there's no tomorrow. With the recent uprisings, most of the buildings around the city have been shut down to protect what little property that remained undamaged. Also, most of the healing centers around the city have been decimated except for three of the centers, one of which was set to open rather soon. As Melanie approached the town, she was amazed at the view she gained from the outside.

"This place looks amazing," she gathered from the view she had. As she did, she noticed the security barrier around the perimeter of the city and decided it best if she went into town on foot. "I guess I'm walking in." She lands and recalls her dragon as she walks up to one of the entrances to the city only to find it completely trashed. As she checked out the empty checkpoint, a sound from behind her revealed a group of seven bandit wizards, who were hiding in the nearby bushes, surrounding her on all sides. "You guys aren't serious in those outfits," she smarts to them.

"No one talks like that to us," one of them wearing a torn, dirty white jacket spoke up for the lot of them. "Just hand over your cards like a good little girl and we won't have to mess up your face." They summon a variety of soldiers and clerics including a Daru Cavalier, Daru Spiritualist, and others.

"I don't have the time to deal with creeps like you," she snarls as she flares up her green aura and draws a card from the holder on her communicator. "If you want to go, then let's go. I'm in a bit of a hurry." She summons her Brontotherium and Titanic Bulvox and enchanted them both with Dragon Fangs. Within five seconds the group was sent running as three of the seven creatures were defeated in an instant. Shaking her head over the pathetic display, she recalled her creatures and entered the city.

The city itself was desolate and looked like several tornadoes had ravaged the place as most places were hollowed out. Any place left untouched, like the city service departments, was heavily guarded by the local authorities. As Melanie walked into the city, she also noticed several clans of dark blue cloaked wizards mixed in with the same crimson cloaks of the Varayan wizards and in other spots, they were mixing it up with rogues from the nearby areas like the ones she encountered on her way into town. It was as if everyone in the city was fighting someone over something.

"This place is a wreck," she whispers to herself as she looked around at the carnage that has resulted from days of fighting. "I hope I can find a healer in this mess." She goes on and explores the city, getting a good view of the tower, until she comes across one of the three remaining healing centers in the city. Walking into the center she's immediately confronted by a large group of dark-blue cloaked wizards who had commandeered the center two days prior.

"You're not from around here aren't you," a male spoke up sitting on the desk. "You're not welcome here. Leave now or else." He along with several other wizards flares up their auras to try and scare her off.

"Oh great," she sighed in disbelief as the wizards proceeded to summon a number of wizards and beasts. "Looks like I'm in for a long day." She summons three beasts to go against the enemy wizards. A struggle ensued and after ten minutes of battling, she was forced to make a break for it as more wizards came to the aid of the ones in the center After a few blocks, she ducked behind a store building and shook off her pursuers. "That was a bad idea. Never take on a group of that size without help. At least I got away from them." She catches her breath before going on to check out the rest of the city in her search for a rainbow healer. She slips out from the building she was behind and continues her search.

As the day wore on, Willie's condition had started to deteriorate significantly. The shockwaves of what was left of his aura were sparking away from his body dragging him closer to death with each passing hour. His pure life essence had started draining away from him and the others could feel it. Efforts to keep him stable until Melanie returned with a rainbow healer were getting harder by the second.

"He's getting worse," the doctor tells the three still in the waiting room. "It's getting harder to keep him stable. He won't make it until morning at this rate." The doctor goes on to another patient that he was tending to.

"It's not looking good," Jesse tells them as they look outside at the cloudy day that had started to clear up with a few peeks of sun. "I think Melanie has less time than she realizes. I hope she gets back soon."

"I agree on that," Nick confirms looking at a sulking Kali as she walks out of the room to be alone once again. "The day is already halfway gone. I hope everything turns out ok." Kali, on the other hand, was having a rather hard time dealing with what happened on the previous day and just kept to herself most of the day and not even Elena could get through to her.

"You're going to have to talk at some point you know," Elena says in vain as Kali isn't listening to anything anyone was saying. "Going like this isn't helping."

"I just don't want to talk about it," she responds to her stronger half without looking. "I'm just worried about him."

"I know you are. Your sister went to find a healer who can deal with the complexity of his aura and the extent of his injuries. Right now, his fate is in her hands."

Melanie continued to traverse the city looking for any healer still left in the city that has turned into a battlezone with several groups fighting for control of the city. Not having any luck or an idea on where to look, she travels down the main thoroughfare and eventually coming across another healing center which was basically unused and was set to open in a few days.

"_Looks like this place is in good shape_," she thought to herself as she entered the building and look around. Checking out the building revealed several features that made it unique from the medical facility that Willie was in at the resort. Many different rooms in the facility were set up for specific wizards from other cities around the country and each of those rooms was to have its own healer if any were still around. Wondering into the basement, she finds the fuse box and starts it up giving the building power. "I'm surprised this place is so empty," she whispers hoping that no one would hear her. She goes back up to the first floor to continue exploring and to use the database to find any of the healers who were to work there. Searching for a few minutes, she comes across the name of Alicia Granson. "Her address is not too far from here from what it looks like," she mentions looking at a map next to the computer. "Maybe I should check this out." She heads out of the center but not after enchanting the building to keep it out of enemy hands until she returned with the crew.

Two squads of blue-cloaked wizards are attacking a group of resistance wizards at an apartment complex in another part of the downtown area. The resistance was heavily overwhelmed and their behavior became obvious to the leader of the two groups.

"Who are you protecting?" the deep voiced male spoke up looking at them. "Tell me now or be destroyed."

"We're not telling you anything," another male spoke from the resistance. "Why don't you tell your gang of thugs to back off? We're not letting you tear up our homes."

"That's too bad. We know there's a healer in there somewhere." The group goes white with fear confirming his suspicions. "I was right on the money. Come on out healer!"

"We're not letting you get to her. Hold nothing back!" the resistance wizards go all out in defending their homes to no avail after fifteen minutes six of the ten blue cloaks were killed and all but one of the eight resistance wizards were killed. The resulting bloodbath brought out the healer Alicia who was holed up in her place.

"You asked for me," she answers them in a bit of a scowl as she walks out wearing a black jacket covering a blue shirt and jeans. "What could you possibly want?"

"Our leader has ordered all healers to the tower for transport," the leader retorts as Melanie, who had stumbled upon the scene and looks on from behind a bush as she listens in. "So you can either come willingly or by force – your choice."

"I'm not going anywhere and you can't make me." She folds her arms in defiance.

"Fine, have it your way." The group leader casts Arrest to bind the resistant healer but it fails as she's surrounded by a strange light pattern. "Alright, who's the moron who's interfering with my mission? Show yourself at once." Melanie comes out from behind the bush she was hiding behind and climbed onto her Titanic Bulvox she had summoned in the same instant while holding a Gilded Light card from her card collection in her left hand.

"I may not know what's going on," Melanie states as her creature walks up to the stunned healer and the mad wizard. "But I do know that you can't force yourself on a lady. We tend to find that very disrespectful." She helps Alicia onto her creature and turns to the bewildered wizard. "Just so you know, I would like to kill you and your group but I'll save that when my team comes back here. But until then I'll leave you with this." She casts Torrent of Fire that blindsides the remaining blue cloaks forcing them to scatter away while she made sure the other surviving wizard was ok before he took off as well.

"I guess that I can thank you for saving me," Alicia told her as they head to the healing center that Melanie had found before heading her way. "I can tell that you're not from around here so mind telling me your deal?"

"It's a long story but I'll explain later." They head into the center as the lights around the parts of town that still have power come on as day gives way to night. "Right now I along with the rest of my team need your help."

"Since you saved me from those Midnight Warriors, I owe you that much so what's up?"

"This guy, who's pretty much our lead tactician, was badly injured yesterday while we were helping another team regain the city of Livalia from a band of similar crooks."

"You're with that group of wizards from Varayan who helped free Livalia," Alicia finally remembers as Melanie nods confirming what she said. "So who's this injured team member you want me to try and help?"

"His name's Willie," Melanie says getting Alicia's undivided attention upon hearing the name of her childhood friend. "According to the story I heard, he got into a nasty duel with some chick with a crystal necklace and got messed up big time. Good thing he won though."

"I know him from when we were kids. We always had each other's back then and now. I'll gladly help you. So where is your team set up shop?"

"We're at the medical unit at the resort in Valderia's Peak – an hour and a half trip by air." Melanie's communicator rings and it reveals Jesse with bad news.

"He's getting worse by the minute," he tells her from the waiting area. "Now there's serious doubt that'll make it until midnight."

"Don't worry," she tells him with a smile on his face. "I found a healer and we're on our way back. Just hold out until we get there."

"Hurry!" he says and they hang up and she turns to Alicia.

"Sorry that we can't get to know each other but we need to get over there _now_!"

"Good thing I know a shortcut," she points out as she leads her to a second floor room marked for medical transport. "Rooms like these are designed to transport people from one medical facility to another for medical purposes only."

"So how do these things work?"

"Simple. All we have to do is enter the transporter." They enter the large transporter room which is large enough to hold up to thirty people or ten people plus a gurney. "I set the destination for Valderia's Peak medical facility and press the transport button. . ." she presses the button and they dematerialize vanishing in an array of light heading towards their destination.

In the resort's medical facility Jesse and Nick were pacing back and forth wondering if Melanie was going to get there with the healer she found in time to save their injured friend. Kali was still in her own little world feeling useless about the whole thing and spent the time looking over at the balcony. The doctor came out and was about to give the gang more bad news that their latest attempt to stabilize Willie had failed when the door to the medical transporter beeps and opens and out comes Melanie and Alicia.

"And just like that we're at the resort," Alicia tells her with a smile on her face as they step out of the transporter much to the surprise of the guys with their mouths wide open not even aware there was a transporter.

"You two looked like you just saw a ghost or something," Melanie smirks looking at the faces of the guys and Alicia goes and talks to the doctor.

"You must be the Kirtren healer," the doctor asked looking at Alicia's appearance as she nods in confirmation. "If you'll come this way we'll let you get to work." They walk off as she goes into the room and looks him over. Nick and Jesse are wondering how they managed back so quick and what the situation is over there.

"You must've found a healing center over in Kirtren," Nick suggested to her as Jesse listened in and Melanie smiles widely. "So what's the situation like over there?"

"I'll tell all of you later on," she answers back looking for her sister, "but right now I want to make sure Kali's doing ok."

Alicia had her work cut out for her looking over her old friend's injuries. Shaking her head looking him over, she takes off her jacket and flares up an aura containing all five colors of the magic spectrum. Her hands gain a very bright glow as she step towards him.

"I haven't seen anyone in this bad a shape in years," she mentions as she starts her work. "This is going to take awhile not to mention I can barely sense his aura."

Misty had returned to city hall in Varayan to sleep for the night and looking over the progress of the other cities when the servant she told to keep an eye on Evelyn called her to update her on what was going on in Kirtren as far as dealing with those rogues that are still causing trouble.

"Reporting in madam," the young servant opens as the conversation starts. "The rogues are causing more trouble than first thought. We're dealing with them but it isn't easy."

"Like I care about that Natalie," Misty scowled at her in disgust before going on. "Has Evelyn done anything to call her loyalty into question?"

"Not that I've seen so far," Natalie responded causing Misty to give a sigh of relief. "Keep an eye on her, something is not right with her and I feel it."

"There is something else though. One of the Midnight Warriors here reported that a healer was rescued by some girl on a big beast. Might be our enemies again but I can't be sure."

"That's just great. I'm more than sure that they now have a healer among their ranks. I'm getting tired of those pests sticking their noses into my business. I'm sending four more groups over to back up Evelyn's group. Continue to keep an eye on her and report back if anything develops."

"Yes my lady." They hang up and Misty sits back in her chair and ponders her next move.

"I think it's time that I start setting up the second phase of my plan," she thought to herself as she starts calling her remaining group leaders and orders them to position themselves at all outpost towns around the remaining cities.

Alicia spent the early part of the night working on Willie's injuries and was making some headway when she made a discovery as she proceeded to try and see what damage was done to his aura. His wounds were healed but he lost so much power his structure had started falling apart making his aura next to impossible to regenerate without serious help.

"I've healed him so he should be ok," she stated to the doctor and the other healers in the room. "Unfortunately his aura structure can't stay together due to his lack of power and major damage causing it to not regenerate.

"What does that mean?" the doctor asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"He'll remain in a unconscious state until we can repair his structure and regenerate his aura which I can do in Kirtren easily. Get him ready for transport." She goes out to tell the team the newest developments and the doctor and his healers prepare the unconscious wizard for transport. "Tomorrow is going to be a very crazy day," she thought as she entered the room and faces the guys with both good and bad news.


	10. Change of Heart

_Magic the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 10: Change of Heart

Alicia made her way into the waiting area where Nick and Jesse were half asleep and Melanie, who had convinced Kali to come inside and get some rest, were sitting together talking about sisterly things trying to lighten her mood a bit. From where they were, the quarter moon was shining in the room as the healer came in with both good and bad news.

"Ok guys," she starts out waking up Nick and Jesse and the girls stood up anticipating the news about their friend. "His injuries are healed but he's far from out of the woods yet. His aura won't regenerate on his own because his baseline structure was heavily damaged."

"At least he's going to be ok," Kali says breathing a sigh of relief bringing a smile to her face for the first time in a few days. "So what's the next step?"

"We're all going to take the transporter back to Kirtren so we can put him in a special aura regeneration chamber that will do the work and fix his aura allowing him to regenerate his power so he'll be fit for battle in the future."

"It's better than him being dead. So when do we all leave?"

"As soon as the doctors finish getting him ready which should be any minute now." The gang gathers their things and gets ready to leave and as they all gather up, the doctor wheels him into the transport chamber and nods at the healer signaling that he's ready to go. "Alright everyone it's time to go." They all get into the transporter and with no wasted motion, Alicia hits the return button and everyone in the room disappears in a flash of light.

At midmorning the next day, Evelyn is sitting in a Kirtren restaurant enjoying an early breakfast minding her own business looking over a map of the city coming up with places to put squads of her Midnight Warriors and squads of Misty's Crimson Fighters that were sent to help gain control over the groups of troublemakers that have been causing problems. Pondering over which groups to send to the areas affected by the rogues, her mind wonders about all that's been going on.

"_I wonder sometimes why I even bother_," she thinks to herself as she decides how to proceed with the group placements. "_My mind says destruction is necessary to rebuild the world but my heart says that Misty is after the power for herself. Lately, I'm just not sure what's right anymore._" She snaps out of it as one of her group leaders sits down in front of her getting her attention.

"Sorry for disturbing you my lady," the servant says in a deep male voice causing the young lady to make a double-take. "I bring news from the city."

"Out with it then," she sternly responds to her servant's words. "As you see I am a busy lady."

"As you wish. As you know, the healer we sought got away yesterday with the help of some girl riding a beast of some sort. Also, one of the scouts report that the healing center that was set to open has been enchanted and can't be entered by anyone. One can only assume that's where they're hiding."

"It's not our primary concern so don't worry about it. Right now we need to take those in the tower out of the city. Get to the tower and prepare the other healers for transport to the construction site." The servant nods and runs out to do what she asked. Evelyn then turns and looks out the window and returns to her thoughts. "_I seriously need a change in my life. This mark on my hands has me bound to Karona but it doesn't feel right to me. I don't know what to do._"

The door to the medical transporter opens and the gang all make their way out as Alicia wheels Willie into an aura regeneration chamber down the hall from the transporter. Upon reaching the door she signals the guys to give her a hand.

"You'll have to stand him up while I get the door to the chamber open," she tells Nick and Jesse as they pick up their unconscious friend and Alicia opens the chamber door. The chamber was about the size of a large coffin with hoses that come out from the sides and rear. Wires with tabs that stick to the person are also ladled in the sides and are longer. On the door was a window to see inside it and a device to monitor the flow of energy. "Just set him up in this and I'll do the rest." The guys do just that and Alicia finishes prepping the chamber by attaching sensors all around his body and closes the chamber and turns it on. A steady blue mist fills the chamber and she points everyone to the device on the chamber. "This device measures the amount of power that he has based on the sensors on his body."

"That can't be right," Jesse points out looking at the power gauge. "It's showing his aura power almost at zero."

"He was pretty much drained. Because of that, he'll have to be in there for at least two maybe three days until his power is restored."

"Well, since we have to wait until he's healed," Nick smarts looking at the group with a smile on his face, "let's check out this town and see what's what." Everyone nods and heads down toward the exit to check things out.

"Hold on a sec," Melanie shouts as the guys made their way down the stairs. "The group in charge here are nothing to mess with. Plus, there are squads of Crimson Fighters here as well."

"Why would Misty send those creeps here?" Nick asked turning to Melanie with concern. "If there's a group here, then why send another."

"It's probably because there are rogue wizards running around the city causing their own brand of chaos. If you want to go out there, then you should . . ."

"We better take our decks with us in case we end up in trouble." Everyone nods as Nick, Jesse and Kali all head out to explore the city on their own while Melanie stayed behind with Alicia to look after her and their unguarded friend.

"Not going with them," Alicia asked Melanie as she sat on a table in the main lobby.

"Had my fill the first time I came here," she responded looking out the window. "Besides, someone needs to be here in case this place gets ambushed or something. I sensed that my enchantment was gone when we stepped out of the transporter."

"Thanks for that. I'm not used to this game but spending time with you guys will help tremendously." Their conversation continues into the early afternoon.

Kali had decided to go off on her own to figure things out. She also started to question herself regarding the ongoing battle after the events of the past few days. Finding her way into a clothing store, she decides a little shopping would help clear her mind. An hour of shopping and she bought a new red and white jacket and decided to hit up the card shop in town and got some cards for herself including Giant Growth and Gaea's Herald. She also got some new cards for Willie including Thundercloud Elemental and an instant card called Chant of Vitu-Ghazi. Keeping to herself, she walks into another store when she sees something interesting on the television screen.

_This is a KNN News Alert: Several groups of wizards are attacking Midnight Warrior wizards at the Sonic Shockwave Tower. Sources close to the situation say that their target includes the twenty or so healers housed inside the tower set to be transported out of the city. We take you live to the scene via helicopter._ The screen shows an overhead view of the battle outside the tower. Two dozen or so rogue wizards were on the charge and the warriors that were there were getting pushed back until a group of Crimson Fighters arrived and engaged the rogues who were forced to back off. The back and forth continues as the news anchor comes back on. _The battle goes on with neither side giving an inch. If anything new develops, we will break in and let you know; now back to your program._

"That can't be good," Kali shakes her head after turning from the screen to go on what she was doing. "Those healers are sitting ducks if we don't try and help them." She does some window shopping before making her way towards the tower.

Nick had also heard the news via his communicator as he wondered about the city as he found some novice players engaging in a friendly game in one of the parks. This brought a smile to his face knowing that there are people playing the game the way it's supposed to be played: fun and trouble-free. He was about to approach them and see what they had when a group of rogues jump out from an alley next to the area where the kids were and proceeded to scare them. Not letting any harm to come to the kids, he summoned his Blastoderm and stopped the ambush in its tracks.

"You're not taking another step," he told the group causing them to take a step back. "Go near those kids and I promise you it'll be the last thing you ever do." The rogues take off not wanting a confrontation with someone that was strong. "This town is in way too much chaos. Better get back to the others." He recalled his creature and made his way back towards the healing center they were stationed.

Jesse spent the early part of the day hanging out with the locals in the mall minding his own business checking out all that Kirtren has to offer. He also checked out the technology sector of town seeing all the innovations that end up in all the other cities around the country. As he left the area, he saw the same news report on his communicator and made his way towards the downtown area as well. Eventually, the guys met back up at the center to figure out what they were to do next.

"Man this place is crawling with those troublemakers," Nick sighed after returning from his skirmish helping out the kids he saw playing. "Lucky I was there to help out that group of kids otherwise who knows what would've happened."

"Good thing I stayed out of the way but I did keep up with the news," Jesse came back looking at everyone seeing the concerned look on their faces. "I think we may have to do something about getting those healers out of the tower before that battle gets resolved."

"This is one of those times I wish Willie was here right now," Melanie chimes in concerned about everything that's going on in the city. "His tactical advice is invaluable when we have no idea on what we need to do." She looks around and realizes that her sister Kali is nowhere around. "By the way, have you guys seen my sister by any chance?"

"Not after we left here to check out the city," Nick responded wondering the same thing as he checks his communicator and notices that she hasn't tried to call her or anyone else. "Better hit her up to see what's up."

"I'm not so sure about that. She's been out of it since our last battle but we better see if she's ok."

The scene outside of the tower was still chaotic as each of the two sides struggled to gain some leverage on the other. The rogues were starting to gain some traction on the allied cloaked wizards and push their way forward until Natalie, who was leading the battle for the two cloaked groups, casts Form of the Dragon to change all creatures to dragons and the rogues were temporarily pushed back. From behind a nearby building, Kali is watching all of the action with a scowl on her face growing weary from all of the fighting. Her communicator goes off and it's Nick checking in.

"We're wondering where you are," Nick asks her as he hears the commotion. "What's the scene like out there?"

"More fighting," she responds looking at the battle as the rogues start to make another push against the makeshift army of dragons. "I'm going to put a stop to all of it in a few seconds."

"Not a good idea," Melanie responds trying to calm her sister down from doing something harsh. "I know your mind has been a bit scattered lately but charging into that would be suicide and we can't afford to have someone else get injured."

"Sorry Mel. Can't talk me out of this one." She cuts off communications with her team and proceeds to charge her Day of Judgment card when a tap on her shoulder snaps her out of her concentration. Turning around, she sees Evelyn who overheard the entire exchange.

"You'd be wise to heed her words," Evelyn says looking into her eyes and seeing hurt along with the same doubts she was having earlier. "You're asking for your own death if you charge in there like that."

"It's not like I care anyway," she responds looking down with sad in her eyes and notices Akroma's mark on her companion's arm and takes a step back. "I just want all of this to stop and judging by that mark on your hand, you might not want to be around me right now."

"Okay. Just take a step back and calm down. I have no interest in fighting you or anyone else," she reassures her as she puts her hands up backing down from the angry young woman as their conversation goes on for another few minutes. Back at the center, Melanie was fuming and concerned over her sister's actions.

"That girl is going to get herself killed," she scowled getting her deck before heading out after her. "We'd better go after her so that doesn't happen."

"We can't leave Alicia and Willie here unprotected," Jesse spoke up as he stood in the door preventing them from leaving at that second. "If you're going, then I'll stay and keep them company."

"Thanks man," Nick smiles with a thumbs-up as he and Melanie rush out and head towards the tower. "We'll be back with her and hopefully some rescued healers."

"We really need our tactician for something like this. He knew how to plan these kinds of missions." He and Alicia go upstairs to check on how Willie is responding to the regeneration chamber.

Outside the tower, the battle was still waging but the rogues were starting to get overwhelmed as Natalie had those guarding the tower doors make an aggressive push to drive out the nuisances for good. While that was taking place, Kali and Evelyn had made an unsteady alliance to get inside the tower.

"Why exactly are you so willing to help me?" She asks confused over the actions of her unusual ally.

"Let's just say I'm trying to find my way and figure out which way is right," Evelyn responded to her question with uncertainty in her voice. "Lately, I haven't been real sure of anything."

"I hear you on that front. I'll get you in there; after that, I can't promise your safety as I'm sure others on my team will be here by then." The two girls shake on their newfound alliance and make a charge for the tower getting Natalie's attention.

"I figured she would turn on us," Natalie said to herself as she stood at the doors determined to stop them before they got to the tower doors. "Watch those girls and stop them if they get too close," she yells out to the groups still fighting off the rogues who didn't hear her at first and were slow to react. Kali did use her Day of Judgment to destroy all of the dragons and Evelyn, who's actually a rainbow wizard, casts Demystify to destroy the enchantment that Natalie had casted earlier. At that moment as the girls enthrall themselves into the battle, Nick and Melanie had arrived at the tower and see the struggle that was taking place.

"Wonder who that is my sister is with," Melanie asks looking at the sprawling fight as the rogues finally retreat as the two girls get the upper hand. "At least she didn't do this by herself."

"That's true," Nick confirmed as they rush into the fray to help them out. "We better give them a hand."

"Read my mind." The two join Kali and Evelyn as they made work of the blue and crimson cloaked wizards killing four of them and causing the others to scatter with various injuries. The four link up to head inside the tower only to see Natalie, who had summoned three spirits including Iname, Death Aspect, to guard the doors to the tower.

"I guess that Madam Misty was right about you after all," Natalie smirked with an evil look in her eyes ready to strike. "She figured you'd turn traitor against her."

"Misty is a fool for doing what she's doing," Evelyn shot back at Natalie with a similar scowl. "I can't believe I actually chose to follow her."

"Now you're going to regret double-crossing my master." The others were in disbelief of what they were hearing between the two ladies. "I'll kill you before you even get the chance to do what I think you're going to do."

"Not going to happen." Evelyn summons one of her dragons to against one of Natalie's flying creatures she summoned in the same instant. "I'm done with you, Misty, and the rest of the fools that are following her."

"Prepare to die traitor!" The girls engage in battle as the other three wizards snuck into the tower while the ladies were arguing.

The inside of the Sonic Shockwave Tower was as futuristic as the rest of the town. Its design was a hexagon shaped that went up like a pyramid. The main lobby was the largest room with high-speed elevators at each of the corners of the building. Glass windows are put in to conserve energy and are mixed in with solar panels to provide power to the building. At the center of the lobby is a large bulletin board with all sorts of information and it included the general location of all the healers that were still in the building. On a back wall behind the board was the main help desk which was unoccupied at the time. As the three wizards walked in, they took in the view before approaching one of the elevators.

"We better find out where the healers are being held so we can get them out before that battle outside gets finished," Nick mentions as he and the sisters head toward one of the elevators.

"I say we all take separate elevators to check out all of these areas," Melanie suggested as Kali headed for a different elevator to avoid drawing huge amounts of opposition. The bulletin showed that the twenty-one healers were being held on the 25th, 38th and 61st floors. "It appears each of the elevators goes a certain distance up the tower. Looks like Kali is heading for the middle of the tower."

"Guess we get the lower two floors then. Let's get going to we can rescue them." The two use the same elevator and Melanie gets off at the 25th floor and Nick got off at the 38th floor to explore and find any healers that might be there.

Outside, the battle between Natalie and Evelyn had reached fever pitch. Natalie's spirits were holding up against the variety of creatures that Evelyn had out at the time as well. Natalie had lost her Gibbering Kami but held strong with Iname and her Kami of Lunacy. Evelyn had a little bit of everything being a rainbow player. She had out an Aven Fateshaper to defend against the spirit flyers, a Tel-Jilad Lifebreather to regenerate her bird soldier when needed and a Kor Hookmaster for some added land muscle.

"You have no idea what I can do," Natalie shouts as a crowd watching the dueling ladies got larger as more people gathered around giving the ladies enough room so they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. "You will regret betraying my master and the grand directive."

"I already told you I don't care about that anymore," Evelyn shot back as she sent her bird soldier in to attack only to have it repelled. "I'm done with Misty and the Karona 6. All I'm going to do is make sure you don't leave here in one piece."

"Not going to happen." The battle goes on between them as Natalie takes a hit from Evelyn's hookmaster and fateshaper forcing her to a knee before getting back up and trying to strike back.

The elevator doors open on the 61st floor of the tower and Kali steps out and immediately started searching room to room without as much as a word. There was no resistance on the floor and upon the fifth door she entered, she saw four healers tied up and no one else around.

"This seems simple enough," she muttered to herself as she went to untie the healers and led them back to the elevator to safety. "Now for the rest of them," she checks the rest of the rooms and finds another three healers in separate rooms. "Don't worry everyone. You're in good hands." She leads them to the elevator and walks in it with them and leads them back down. Nick and Melanie had similar luck as they each found seven healers on their floors and encountered no resistance as they headed back down to the lobby with no incident.

"That was way too easy," Melanie mentions as they all reconvene back in the main lobby. "Wonder why they wouldn't be guarded."

"Probably because they are all outside watching that," Kali points out the battle still going down outside between Evelyn and Natalie, who had started to fall apart against Evelyn's strategy and aggressive playing style. By now, the only creature that Natalie had out was Iname but it looked like he was on his last leg. Evelyn's fateshaper stood poised and ready to finish Iname off but the spirit's special ability kept her back temporarily but it didn't last. Natalie was having a hard time by now just focusing to use her cards properly.

"Why doesn't she finish her off already?" Nick suggested as the three watch with intrigue as Melanie and Kali funnel the healers out of the tower out of Natalie's line of sight while Kali locked eyes with Evelyn and nodded signaling her to wait before making acting while they funnel them all out.

"She's waiting," Melanie saw as the last of the healer ran around the building before they all scattered and went their separate ways. Once they were clear, she signaled that she was free to attack all out and hold nothing back. Evelyn nodded back in confirmation and turned her attention to Natalie who was still oblivious what was going on.

"Now that your healers are now out of captivity," she smirks as Natalie looked behind her to see the sisters waving causing her to get even more disgusted. "I now know where I belong and what I should be doing."

"And what you suppose that should be?" Natalie asked with a scowl on her face as she struggled to get back on her feet.

"To help take down Misty and return this world to normal." She had her fateshaper attack again but this time Natalie was ready as she let Iname take the hit but it was all for not. "That was your final mistake." Evelyn casts Order to remove Iname from the battle and, with one last strike, fatally wounded Natalie and she fell to the ground in one swift strike.

"You won't stop Misty. You're . . . foolish if you think you can . . . (_coughs blood_) . . . This world is doomed." Her breathing ceases and she lies dead. The others walk up to Evelyn who stands above the remains of her former partner. The fighters of the Midnight Warriors and Crimson Fighters were still engaged with the rogues who had restarted their fight when they noticed the outcome of the other battle. Almost instantly they turned to face the woman who was surrounded by the other four wizards who had just rescued the healers. Just as they were poised to strike, a voice rings out stunning everyone in front of the tower. On the face of the tower, a projection of a red-haired woman wearing a red and black dress stands above all scaring Evelyn in particular. It turns out to be Misty projecting her image across the country to all six major cities.

"Warriors of the servants of Karona," she starts out looming large as everyone listens intently and the five wizards are angrily listening along. "It is time to take things to the next level. All of you are to report to the nearest outpost town and link up with the other groups already assembling outside of Rovenia. When the sun sets and day becomes night, fire will rise and chaos will reign. Heed my words for tonight hell will be unleashed!" Her image disappears from the face of the tower and the cloaked wizards quietly head out of town without a word. Evelyn just stands there and sighs in disbelief.

"Aren't you going with them," Kali asked her as she looked down at her mark in disgust. "You are one of Misty's allies."

"I'm not with her anymore," Evelyn tells her and the group. "Misty is doing all of this for her own personal gain. I'll explain it to all of you when we get out of here. I'm done with her and her greedy ways."

"Whoa," Melanie responds to what she heard from her. "Can't believe that you can't stand her that much."

"Well believe it. With everyday she's becoming more like what Karona was according to the book on her – a false god with an unending thirst for power."

"We would like for you to join us but that would require the approval of all five of us," Nick added to the discussion. "Since you're against her you'd be a good fit for our group but right now one of our own is out of commission. For now, let's all walk back to the center we're stationed in and you can tell us more about what that crazy woman is up to."

"I'll gladly do that. So who's the one that's out of commission right now?"

"We'll explain our story once we get back to the center." They all walk back together while Kali look towards the sky and says a silent prayer.

Misty had changed from her dress to more of a warrior's outfit with a black jacket covering a red shirt and black jeans with heeled boots. Emerging from city hall in Varayan she basks in the early afternoon sky as she summons an Accursed Centaur and rides it to the site of the temple outside of Rovenia. In front of the site near the gates to the temple, there stood hundreds of cloaked wizards from the six major cities all together in one large group. As she walked up to the front of the group, a smile came to her face knowing that her goals were within reach.


	11. Descent into Darkness

_Magic the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 11: Descent into Darkness

Standing before the numerous fighters as the sun started to begin its descent, Misty was more than ready to speak to her warriors before they head out on their new mission to descend the country into total darkness and also to search for the sphere she needs. Walking out to cheers and applause from her followers, she was flanked by her three remaining allies: a dark skinned overweight male named Stephen, a Caucasian female named Katie, and a Caucasian male named Chris. She holds up her left hand holding the mark of Karona as she begins to speak.

"Alright everyone, listen up," she starts as everyone settles down. "As I stand here before you on this evening, I can say that the Temple of the False God is slightly past half complete. Now it's time to increase the amount of chaos energy to bring about the master's resurrection. My order for you all is to destroy everything in the country. The more chaos energy is created, the more powerful the master will be." Cheers erupt from the crowd as she calmed them all down before continuing. "I also have a kill on sight order for those pests that have been a thorn in my side. There is a group of wizards from Varayan that have caused us nothing but trouble." She shows an image of the five wizards that have wreaked havoc on her plans in the recent weeks. "Their white wizard is to be kept alive so I can take her power for myself. Now go and spread the chaos into the night." More cheers as the crowd disperses to head to their objectives and those working on the temple continue their work.

Evelyn walked into the center with Kali, Melanie and Nick to tell them all about what she knew about Misty's true motive and all were welcomed by Jesse and Alicia as the two Kirtren alliances share an embrace before sitting down to engage in a conversation.

"It's seems that you two know each other," Nick mentions to Evelyn and Alicia as they broke their embrace and turned to Nick and the rest of the group.

"Yeah," Alicia responded back as she kept going. "We've known each other since we were really young. We kind of went through something nasty and we'll explain that later."

"Fair enough," Jesse shrugs as they all sit in the lounge area at the center's waiting area. "So I take it by you being here you want to join up with us?"

"That's the plan but from what Nick said and Kali told me, you've got someone whose opinion you need before confirming that right?"

"Yeah. There's no telling when he'll come out of that chamber. He was beaten up pretty bad a few days ago."

"Mind telling me what happened?"

"It's a long and horrible story," Kali shakes her head not wanting to remember what she saw that night. "Better get comfortable as it'll take a while." The tale begins as the lights outside come on signaling that darkness was starting to fall on the city.

Misty led a group of over 40 wizards as she tore up the countryside scorching everything in their path. The wizards with her were using cards like Implode, Rolling Spoil and enchanting areas with cards like Uncontrolled Infestation. Even when they come across a large area of people, the minions simply kill them off by any means and then someone casts Decree of Annihilation.

"That's it," she smirks as they lay waste to an area on her path towards the town of Kaborn City. "Leave nothing standing." Turning around to leave the town, a group of wizards step up to try and stop her from destroying anymore buildings. "Well, what do we have here?"

"We're here to stop you," the female leading the group mentions. "We won't let you destroy our homes."

"Like you lot are going to do anything about it," she responds as she flares up her dark red aura causing her opponents to cringe a bit before doing the same. "Your power levels are pathetic. Then again I could use some amusement."

"We're stronger than we look. Now get her!" The group greatly underestimated Misty's power as they were overwhelmed from the start. She summoned a Phyrexian Colossus and a Phyrexian Hulk and she puts them against an array of creatures that are 4/4 and less.

"You can't be serious with those petty toys. Let me show you some real power." Misty wastes no time in casting Explosive Growth and Giant Growth on her creatures stomping out her opponents killing all twelve of them in an instant. "Now that's a lesson in power. Continue tearing up the countryside and I'll go and have some fun on my own." She leaves the group she was with and summons a Phyrexian Debaser to ride on as she moves on and her minions continue their warpath.

Outside of Solarium was another group of cloaked wizards along with Katie at the helm. She was most mellow of the remaining members of the servants who did what she was told no matter how bad it was. Being from Kaborn City, she was definitely known around there as the queen of the warriors. Approaching another obscure village on the outskirts of the city, she didn't hesitate to look for the object that Misty told her to look for.

"We need to look for that sphere that the master needs for her release," she tells her group as they enter the town and start tearing the place apart. "Destroy everything and find it and if anyone tries to stop you, the mistress has ordered them dead." The carnage continues as a mysterious veil of darkness began to spread from Rovenia to all places around the country as the carnage spread.

Kali and the other three Varayan wizards told Evelyn everything that had happened since they were forced from their homes some time ago. From the training she had to go through to what happened to Willie several days prior, she staggered through that part of it as she finished their story. Evelyn was left shaking her head from what she was hearing. She had kept up with their exploits through what Misty had told her but hearing it from them was another thing entirely.

"I can't imagine going through what he had to deal with," she mentions shaking her head in disbelief of what she just heard. "Those crystals aren't to be messed with."

"Tell me about it," Nick confirmed as he flashed back to his battle from Livalia. "Beating that guy was no easy feat for sure. Even then I did have help."

"Try taking on someone that strong one-on-one," Kali sadly responded to Nick's comment looking down. "Willie took on that chick by himself and almost died beating her. As much as I wanted to get into that battle, he told me to stay out of it as I didn't have the experience to handle something like that."

"He was right to tell you to stay out of it. He's probably one of about five wizards in the entire country that could take on someone as strong as a crystal wielder and survive."

"You seem to know a lot about how those crystals work," Melanie chimed in as her interest peaked on the conversation. "Not to mention that you seem to know a lot about my sister's boyfriend."

"The two of us along with Alicia were best friends when we were kids. As far as the crystals are concerned, it's only one part of what Misty's ultimate plan is." The discussion goes on as upstairs the regeneration chamber door beeps three times and opens completely oblivious to the others downstairs.

Misty had a change of course and linked up with Chris outside of Aldertown with a motive of her own. Chris was mostly muscle and as always wore a muscle shirt and black warm-ups. He was the equivalent of a typical high school bully who loves messing with people for his own entertainment.

"I'm surprised that you haven't obliterated this town yet," she says getting his attention as he nods acknowledging her presence. "I have something special for you to do while you're here."

"What would that be?" he asked wondering as Misty pulled a picture out of her pocket and showed it to him.

"Capture this family and kill everyone else. As soon as you accomplish this, wreck the rest of the town and that should give those fools a nice distraction while I look for the sphere we need." She hands him a picture of Jesse's family she had obtained from his home the day after the overhaul of the city. "His mother is named Madison and his father is Jeremy."

"I'll take care of it. This town is a rundown dump anyway. I'm sort of hoping to run into some action anyway."

"Before you go . . . I think that I'll tag along with you for a bit and cause a bit of havoc myself," she says while charging three Fireball cards with her dark aura behind her back completely oblivious of her unsuspecting ally. They enter the town and Chris wasted no time looking for the people in the photo that he was handed. Misty wasted no time in going towards the town's small power distributor and corrupting it with dark energy causing the whole city in being covered with a thin layer of darkness within several hours.

Stephen was following orders like everyone else as he led a group towards the swamps surrounding another outpost town and launches an attack on the unsuspecting town. As he made his way through following the carnage of his group, he came across a well built castle structure. The structure had a combination of both Overgrown Tomb and Golgari Rot Farm and Bog Wreckage added into the mix. He was amazed at the fact that the overall town was already falling apart before they even got there.

"I'm more than amazed this place is still together," he gathered wondering around in the muck that was the walkways of the deserted town. Continuing to wonder around, he comes across a room with pictures of five spheres circling a Chromatic Sphere. "Now this is interesting. Better dial up Misty and have her take a look at this." He takes out his cell phone and calls her up.

The conversation continued between everyone that was in the unopened healing center as darkness started to settle in for the night. Evelyn had begun to explain the purpose of the crystal and going into details about Misty's actual plans.

"What's she's planning is more diabolical than you can imagine," Evelyn mentions staring into her glass of juice she got herself about ten minutes prior. "She was going to get rid of the others in her group and then use the power of the crystal to merge her body with Karona herself."  
>"Merge bodies!" Nick blurted out in disbelief. "Where did she get a crazy idea like that?"<p>

"She always had a crazy idea like that," Kali responded remembering something from the past. "Misty always had the wish that she could become the creatures we play with today. I guess she finally got the means to do it."

"But where would the power come from for her to be able to pull that off?" Jesse asked out of intrigue as he's never heard of such a thing.

"It's around us now. Here's how this was supposed to go. Someone in Rovenia managed to summon Karona who then brainwashed Misty, Brian, myself and three others out to her."

"We learned all of that from Willie when he got back from out there the day the five of us all left Varayan," Nick confirmed as Evelyn shot him a look before continuing on with her story.

"That maybe true but here's what I saw. Karona ordered us to spread chaos energy throughout each of our respective cities and each was to be overrun with chaos on a chosen date and time. Misty picked out the date and we all got to work." She sighs again knowing she was about to get into the part why she questioned all of this.

"Again we knew about all of that," Nick came back again getting annoyed by hearing all of this again. "So what's the new stuff you need to tell us?"

"Will you settle down for a second," Melanie spoke up as she was hearing all of this for the first time. "Unlike the three of you, I haven't heard this and would like to hear the rest so put a sock in it."

"Same goes for me," Alicia agreed backing up Melanie as she started to stare at Nick. "Just chill and let those who haven't heard this story hear it for themselves." She turns to her friend and pats her on the arm. "The two of us would like to hear the rest of the story."

"Of course," Evelyn nods at the two girls before continuing. "You learned from Willie what he found out about the meeting I get that. As I was leaving, I overheard Misty talking secretly with Karona as I passed the room she was in. Karona told Misty to seek out spellbombs or something like that along with some kind of sphere to channel the power. That's when I realized she was in this for herself. We were needed to spread the chaos."

"If you knew all of that, then why did you go along with it?" Melanie asked with even more intrigue than she had before.

"I didn't want her to know what I knew. After Brian went down in Livalia, I saw Misty's reaction and it seemed like nothing to her although he was an arrogant motor-mouth."

"You can say that again," Nick remembered giving off a slight smirk. "All he did was talk like there's no tomorrow."

"So where do these crystals come in?" Jesse asked quizzically as the conversation continued between the six of them for another few minutes.

Misty finally made it to where Stephen was and needless to say she was interested in seeing what he had found. Stephen had studied the pictures intensely trying to make sense of them as she walked in startling him as she spoke up.

"So I see you found a serious clue to where that sphere might be?" she asked him as he continued to study the pictures. "What do you make of all of this?"

"From what I gathered, the sphere wouldn't appear until these spellbombs are all found and gathered at that temple that still isn't finished yet. That's all I gathered from these pictures."

"Good work Stephen. Now that I know all of this, your assistance is no longer needed." She casts one of the Fireball spells she charged a while back blindsiding him knocking him out in the same second. Not wasting a second, she casts Scorching Lava and Scorching Flesh to kill him before he could defend himself. "That's one down and two more to go." She dusted her hands off and heads on out after checking out that space and the images of those bombs.

Chris tore through Aldertown like lightning looking for the individuals that were in the picture that Misty had given him. His search eventually took him across town to a hotel right in the middle of town. He tried to go in but due to the attack, almost every public place was closed until the situation had passed. He barged in anyway and right in the lobby, were Jesse's parents Madison and Jeremy helping out people who got hurt in the initial attack.

"Get them," he shouts out as four cloaked wizards come from behind him and entrap the two by casting Arrest on both of them. "You two are going to be leverage for my master." As he says that, a dark red flash at the door revealed Misty had returned with a nasty smirk on her face as she looked upon the imprisoned couple.

"Your son and his friends have caused me nothing but trouble," she snarls at them as her rant gets even more insidious. "By capturing you two, it'll force his team to mount a rescue that will keep them from interfering with my plans for total domination. Killing you both would do me no good right now." She walks around for a minute thinking about what she should do next. "I guess for now you two will have to be my prisoners. Take them back to the temple. They'll serve as sacrifices when the time comes for the resurrection." The cloaks take the pair out of the hotel and as Chris walked out, Misty casts Frozen Solid on him freezing him in his tracks. As he looks on in disbelief, the red-haired woman then casts Implode to destroy the entire facility and everyone in it. Admiring the carnage she just inflicted, she headed out of town. "I'll leave Katie for those pests to keep them out of my hair."

Evelyn had pulled out a crystal she had obtained to show the group the immense power they harbor. As each person touched the crystal as it was passed around, they all could feel the power that it had as she went on with what she knew.

"I'm not really sure what she had planned with the crystal," she started out as they all continued to look at the crystal as it reacted with each of their power levels. "My best guess is that once that Chromatic Sphere absorbed the power from the spellbombs, Misty would use the crystal to aid in merging her life energy and physical body to Karona's. But it's only a guess." A bright white flash gets everyone's attention as Elena enters the conversation startling Evelyn.

"I'm starting to wonder if that prophecy is involved in all of this somehow," she wonders as Evelyn is taken aback by the sudden change in appearance. She looks at the bewildered young lady and it hits her. "Sorry for the scaring you like that – the name's Elena."

"It's nice to meet you. I take it you're that other spirit that Misty has spoken of?"

"Yeah but we're unsure of how I fit into all of this."

"Misty has a version of the prophecy and it's why I know as much as I do. From what she told me, she needs to find these five spellbombs first in order to do what she needs to but she has no idea on how to find them."

"Willie and I pretty much know the rest and what you just said was the part we haven't figure out yet. As far as they're concerned, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. So I guess our next move is to get our hands on some of those crystals."

"Yeah if we knew where to get them in the first place," Alicia asked wondering about how they were going to obtain the kind of crystals they would need. "If you all are going up against the kind of power you're talking about then you'll need every advantage you can get."

"The crystals are all individually handmade over in Solarium," Evelyn came back answering that part. "The problem is that by now most of the outpost towns have either been wiped out or taken over by the other cloaks. Getting around would be next to impossible without running into constant ambushes and fighting to get in and out of town."

"Which makes the matter all the more important for us to get our hands on them as soon as possible if we're to stand a chance," Nick responded confirming what Alicia had said a minute or two ago. "Once we get them, we should be able to do what she's planning and merge with our best creatures. Then we can –"

"If only it was that simple," a voice rings out stopping Nick in mid-sentence causing everyone to look around to see who spoke. A smile from Kali, who had just changed back from Elena, told the whole story as she looked behind Jesse as Willie stood leaning against the wall next to the stairs. As everyone else rose to greet their friend were relieved to see that he's moving about. "What's up everyone?" Kali planted a kiss on him to welcome him back and everyone was all about hugging and relieved he was fine.

Katie was relatively unimpeded as she held down the town of Solarium with the exception of taking any and all refugee camps that sprung up as a result of the chaos. All towns around the area are basically ghost towns except for a few that are scavenging food and other various supplies.

"Looks like everything's been plundered," Katie mutters under her breath as she sits on a park bench as the group she's with continues to devastate everything in sight, "and no sign of the sphere or anything else. I'm bored now." As she watches the carnage her group is unfolding, Misty appears out of the blue snapping her out of her train of thought. "What brings you to my end?"

"We have the information we need," Misty states as Katie gets up and stands face-to-face with their leader not knowing that she's gotten rid of two of their allies. "Head back to the temple and guard our sacrifices while I go and find the location of those spellbombs."

"I'm on my way back. I'll have the group continue their destruction. By the way, where are Stephen and Chris?"

"Their services were no longer needed so I let them go," she lied. "If you would excuse me, I'll take my leave." She takes off leaving Katie a bit dumbfounded wondering what really happened to them. Not thinking any more of it, she orders her group to stay the course as she heads back to Rovenia.

After welcoming their member back from injury, Willie got the info on what happened the past few days after his near-death battle with Kathy back in Livalia. From Melanie's quest to find Alicia to Evelyn jumping ship from Misty and handily defeating Natalie single-handed. Nodding and affirming what they've been through, he gets up and gets a snack and drink from the vending machines in the center.

"Sounds like you all have been through a lot," he sighs in disbelief not believing he missed out on so much in the last few days. He turns to Alicia first. "Great to see you again, Alicia. Didn't think we'd meet up again like this; however, I owe you for saving my life."

"Not a problem," she smiles as she goes on. "We still have to look out for each other." He then turns to Evelyn who's more than shocked to see him standing there wearing light blue jeans and shirt with a white shirt underneath the blue button-down and white shoes.

"I guess I owe you too Evelyn. Thanks for allowing the others to save the healers. I know it couldn't have been easy to betray Misty like you did. You'll make a fine addition to our team."

"Thanks I guess. That means I'm now one of you and I'm glad," she nervously responds with a happy tone on her face.

"Didn't think that the three of us would be together again under these circumstances," Alicia states as Willie and Evelyn laugh as the other four wizards get these questioned look on their faces wondering what they're talking about. Evelyn notices their look and is quick to respond.

"It's a long story regarding the three of us. We might get into it a bit later."

"Right," Willie responded as he along with the rest of the group sat down in a circle with Kali clinging to his right side and Evelyn and Alicia to his left. "On to our newest old problem if you all don't mind."

"Misty's planning on merging her life force with Karona once she collects the spellbombs," Evelyn told him as they all sat down around the table. "My guess is that she's found the general location of the five spellbombs by now."

"What I can't understand is how she's going to go about merging with Karona," Kali mentioned listening in and rising up. "Without Elena's power, that's next to impossible."

"Wrong," Willie sternly responds as he explains. "Elena's power does play a role deciding the balance of power but that will be figured out later. Right now this merging thing has me concerned."

"Why's that?" Nick asked wondering as he notices Willie's face as he looks at both Evelyn and Alicia as they all knew what the other was thinking.

"Because it's not the first time that it's been tried," Evelyn came back as she signaled Willie and Alicia to the side for a private chat as she too became concerned for some reason. "Are you sure we should tell them?" she asked him.

"I think it's time," Alicia nodded confirming what was already said.

"If we're going to have a chance to stop Misty's plan, they need to know the whole story," he tells them with a stern look on his face acknowledging the seriousness of the situation.

"That means we have to –"

"Yeah," Evelyn begrudgingly responded with a dejected look on her face.

"Is that place even still around?" Willie asked wondering if they should even go over there.

"Yeah it's there. It doesn't make me any more or less willing to go back in there after what they did to us." As the conversation continued, the others were waiting impatiently wondering what those three were talking privately about and from their perspective it was a serious conversation.

"Was it something I said," Nick asked the other three as they all watched the conversation between the Kirtren trio. The conversation ends and they all rejoin the group eager to continue the conversation.

"Sorry about that," Alicia said as they take their places where they were before. "We had to discuss something important."

"About the fact that you said that merging with creatures happened before," Nick spoke up wondering about his last statement that pulled the three of them aside. The three Kirtren-born wizards all looked at each other and nodded before one of them spoke up.

"What Misty's planning to do does have some precedent," Alicia starts out slowly as she paces the room with hesitation before continuing. "The idea came from here."

"Wait a sec," Melanie stood up not believing her ears. "You're saying that she got that idea from here but how is that possible."

"It didn't come from us," Willie responded as he stopped Alicia in her tracks. "She must've found out about this town's past and it's not a nice one."

"Karona planted the idea in her and then she asked me if merging was possible and I told her everything," Evelyn came back. "I had no reason to think she would pursue it despite the risks."

"What risks?" Melanie asked getting more curious as the discussion deepens. "It's not like people died from combining with creatures."

"You have no idea," Willie told her piquing her curiosity as he got up to head upstairs. "Better rest up everyone because tomorrow the three of us are going to tell the story of this town's past and take you all to the place it all happened and I'll leave it at that." One by one they all got into a spot to sleep for the night having no idea of the tale they were going to hear from the Kirtren trio.


	12. Kirtren's Experimental Past

_Magic: The Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 12: Kirtren's Experimental Past

Dawn gave way to the first snowstorm of the season as the gang of seven wakes and began to pack as they were leaving the center and heading for some place only Evelyn, Alicia and Willie know of. From the talks last night, it was obvious that something nasty went down here a long time ago and it was connected to whatever Misty's planning to do at this point. They head out shortly after nine in the morning as the snow was at its lightest.

"Everyone ready to head out," Willie asks everyone as each person nodded in succession as his team was still unsure of where they are going. They all started to walk out and within a half hour, they were outside of the city limits but still within the magical shield that surrounded the city.

"Where exactly are we going," Nick asked for the group as they were all thinking the same thing. "Keeping us in the dark is getting us more anxious."

"We're heading for a lab that's not too far from our location at the center," Evelyn responded looking back at him. "Once we're out of the cold we'll explain everything." The gang continues walking until they come across a frozen lake. "The lab is just across the lake. Unfortunately, the ice is too thin to walk on."

"So why don't we just summon a creature to get us across the lake?" Melanie asks as she searches her deck for something to help cross the lake.

"Not possible," Willie came back stopping her before she could summon something. "This area has a mana seal on it and it prevents us from summoning anything without serious consequences."

"How can you tell," Evelyn comes back surprised he even picked up on that. "There's nothing stopping us."

"Ever since I got out of that chamber yesterday, my powers have been a bit all over the place. From what it seems, I'm able to sense abnormalities in the grid. I felt it when we got here and that's why I stopped Melanie from doing something stupid."

"Thanks for that," Melanie sighed as she put her deck away. "The question remains, how do we cross this blasted lake?"

"Let me take a shot at it," he answers and steps up to the edge of the water. He flares up his blue mana and puts his hand directly on the water and closes his eyes as his aura combines with the aura of the lake. A blue beam of energy shoots from his hand across the lake and takes the form of a bridge wide enough for everyone to cross safely without trodding into the freezing water. Wiped out, he stumbled back upon the bridge's completion only to be caught by Kali. "There. That should do it. We can keep going now."

"How did you do that?" Kali quizzed wondering how that happened with just his mana.

"It's all part of that story we will tell once we reach the lab so let's get going before that bridge evaporates." He gets up only to stagger a bit before finding his balance. "That really took a lot out of me."

"You really should take it easy until your strength comes back," Alicia tells him as she and Kali help him across the bridge he made. "Your power may be back but your energy is still a bit low."

"Thanks for stating the obvious." The gang moves on as they enter the woods on the path that leads towards the lab.

Work continued on the temple in Rovenia as the workers there stepped up their pace to get everything finished in time for the merging ritual to begin. Katie was overseeing the construction because Misty was off somewhere unknown to her and honestly she didn't care either. She loved being alone as she always was. Wondering around the various areas of the temple nearing completion, she also peeks in on Misty's hostages to make sure they weren't doing anything.

The gang of seven clears out of the woods some two hours after crossing the lake. Reaching the top of a hill revealed a scene out of a science fiction story – the entire valley covered in snow. At the bottom of the hill was a black building sticking out like a sore thumb in the snow. The building itself had a decrepit look to it as if it's been unused for years on end. The front had the look of a mausoleum with the rest going deep into and under the next hill.

"There it is," Evelyn states as they all start down the path towards the building. "The Aura Research Facility – the site of Kirtren's dark and deadly history."

"That's putting it mildly," Willie says as he and Alicia join up with Evelyn as they approaching the mysterious building. "The things that went on here would make even the toughest person cringe in fear."

"Alright you three," Jesse finally spoke up having had enough of the cryptic talk from the trio. "Time to spill what made this place so horrible in the first place."

"As soon as we get inside," Evelyn snapped at him for his impatience. "No one wants to talk in the middle of this weather." They approach the building and standing in front of the door is a Mausoleum Turnkey who was the keeper of the building and guarding the front door and notices the gang approaching the building.

"Stay where you are," the creature demanded. "No one is permitted to pass for any reason unless you're an experiment."

"What does he mean by that?" Melanie asked as the three Kirtren-born wizards walked up to the creature.

"Let us handle this," Alicia reassures them as they approach the one guarding the entrance to the lab. "Since you only let experiments or personnel in that's what we three are – experiments."

"In that case then," the creature smirked back, "what are your names and numbers?"

"I'm Evelyn – experiment 47663."

"I'm Willie – experiment 47395."

"I'm Alicia – experiment 47427."

"Well," the creature responded, "didn't expect to see the three of you back here again." The three smile nervously as he turns to open the door. "You and your crew are permitted to enter." He steps aside as the three motions for the rest of the team to come as well and the all enter the facility. The inside of the lab was very worn down and used out with the main lobby covered in spider-webs. Finding a place to settle down, they manage to get a fire going and they all gather around it to get good and warm.

"So what was that all about with the whole experiment number thing?" Jesse asked wondering how they got past the turnkey with no incident. "What's the story about this place and your connection to it?"

"It all started twenty years ago," Alicia started out as the three sat at the head of the group and the others got comfortable around the fire facing them as a flashback begins. "In the game's early days, older players got the game going were battling each other for neighborhood supremacy."

"However," Willie continued looking at everyone and the fire. "According to the stories, the Kirtren leaders back then were constantly trying to push the envelope when it came to technology. Then came the day that changed everything."

"That's the incidental merge you mentioned before right," Melanie asked figuring where this story was going. "When you said before that merging with creatures had precedent?"

"Something like that," Evelyn answered before continuing. "One of the older players was fooling around one day and accidentally released too much power and merged with a creature. The merge was temporary but the leaders saw this and wanted to explore it further."

"Thus led to the creation of this facility we find ourselves in," Alicia tells as she takes the story and motions the group further into the facility. Deeper in the facility lies the actual lab that everything happened. The main computer looked relatively new and on the left wall were the stations that the test subjects were placed in. In the center of the room was a device to control the aura flow within the chambers. "This is the room where it all happened."

"How do you three know all of this," Nick asked amazed at the set up this place had.

"We'll answer that one in a bit ok?" Willie responded. "As we were saying, the leaders wanted to know if it was possible for everyone with an aura to merge with a creature. So the experiments were started to find the answer."

"At first they used the players at that time," Alicia took over as Willie got himself something to drink from his bag. "They would stick them into those chambers over there and infuse them with tons of energy to see if they could merge with a creature."

"I'm guessing that it didn't work?" Jesse asks causing Alicia to shake her head confirming his statement.

"It failed big time and over a period of a year, over two hundred players were killed in these experiments. Anyone who went into the experiment did not come out alive. Then the researchers found out that children were showing signs of auras as well; therefore, they started gathering any person – man or woman of any age with a mana aura – and experimented on them and it got worse."

"How bad did these experiments get?" Kali finally asked as she stood next to her man.

"People died faster than they could bring them in," Willie finally said dejectedly as he looked in one of the chambers. "It got so bad that in one week, over three hundred wizards, some of them were under the age of ten, died. One day had over eighty dead. When all was said and done some ten years later when the experiments were shut down, only four people survived these experiments and one of them was said to be in a coma in a undisclosed location."

"What happened to all of the victims," Nick wondered as he scoured the computer in the room looking at the records. "And who were the other three survivors?"

"No one knows what happened to the dead bodies but it was said that you could hear the cries of the victims when no one was around. As far as who the other three survivors are . . . you all are looking at them." The group was shocked as they looked at Willie, Evelyn and Alicia as each of them nodded causing gasps from the group before we went on. "How do you think we got into this place so easily?"

"Now I think that you're full of it," Nick denied not wanting to believe what he was hearing. "How do we know you're not lying?"

"Why did you go through the trouble of getting me to the resort to heal him?" Alicia got their gears turning causing Nick and Jesse to have a 'oh duh' moment realizing the obvious.

"So what were your individual stories anyway?"

"Basically we all came here together," Willie answered as he went to the computer and pulled up each of their files to show to everyone. "We each went through eight months of these experiments when we were at the age of seven."

"Each of us had the same thing happen," Evelyn added on, "our aura structures were permanently altered. The process was painful in more ways than you can imagine."

"What was it like to be in those chambers?" Kali asked wondering how they survived when thousands of others didn't.

"The best way I can put it is like this," Willie started to respond as he looked at the chambers with disgust, "it was like being coated with a conductive solution and then they turned us into a human lightning rod hit with huge amounts of electricity and top it off with being smacked in the head with a sledgehammer. That was our lives for over eight months."

"Fortunately the experiments were terminated when someone tipped off the feds," Melanie recalled from something she read online a year or two back. "What I'm trying to figure out is what did you mean by your auras were altered?"

"You know all about base structures and how that first line goes through your primary color signifying the color of each of our auras, right?"

"We tried to understand that back at the resort after that battle," Nick responded remembering the night after the battle to save Livalia. "We couldn't get you healed up for nothing and then we heard about your structure."

"This is where it happened. My structure was reset to where I draw power from all colors of the magic spectrum – which is why I can control colorless creatures like morphs so well."

"Alicia and I always had rainbow based auras," Evelyn added on to answer Nick's question as well. "Our powers were amplified to where she's a healer and I'm a rainbow wizard."

"It's all good and all," Melanie chimes in wondering about something. "How does all of this fit into what Misty's planning to do?"

"All of this was to show that merging comes with grave consequences," Willie responded looking at his file in the computer. "Misty must've found the power needed to pull it off whereas the researchers here didn't."

"You make it sound like merging your creature could cost you your life."

"Exactly. If Misty does pull this off, she will lose what little humanity she has left. Now that you all know the seriousness of the situation, we have to make sure that merge doesn't happen."

"We need to know where those spellbombs are," Evelyn came back sternly as she looked at the group before going on. "If we can find them, we can at least slow things down until we figure out our next move."

"Good thing we hid our spellbomb some time ago when we were forced to shut down," a voice rings out getting everyone's attention. They snap around to find a light-skinned middle-aged man, who had been listening to the entire conversation, standing in the doorway. His appeared in a lab coat covering a black button down shirt and dress slacks and shoes. "Well isn't this a surprise to see the three of you around here again."

"Who the hell let you out of your cage you crazy old man?" Alicia snapped as Willie and Evelyn got their auras up in anger of seeing this man. Upon seeing this, the man put his hands up in surrender and backs down.

"Stand down you two," the man states backing up. "I'm not going to do anything – yet." He puts his hands down to show he means no harm then starts laughing hysterically.

"The three of you know this whack job?" Melanie asked getting scared looking at the looks on Willie and Evelyn's faces. "He's looks like he's crazy."

"He is," Willie gnarled as he stared down the man before powering down and Evelyn doing the same. "Everyone, this is Dr. Julius Habeeb. He's the one who spearheaded the experiments here all those years ago."

"You have some nerve showing your face around us again," Alicia snaps at him. "We told you when they carted you off that if we ever saw you again we'd have no problem killing you."

"Don't worry I mean no harm," the crazy doctor cackled as he approached the computer and activate a group of zombie wizards armed with artifacts. "The zombies, on the other hand, want to hurt you real bad." Everyone else tried to raise their aura but could not due to the power dampening device that was also activated when the wizards came out of the room they were materialized in. Only Evelyn and Willie got their auras up although his was significantly weaker than it should be.

"Looks like we're staying out of this one," Nick dejectedly says as he and the others got out of the line of fire letting their two comrades handle this fight. Evelyn notices Willie's lack of power and became concerned.

"I thought you were stronger than that," she asks him as they stared down their situation with angry glares. They were surrounded by eight zombies with the good doctor staring from the computer. "What do you estimate you power to be?"

"Don't worry about me," he smirked looking at the doctor with confidence. "My power's only at about forty percent but I can take out these zombies in less than five minutes. Get some blows in on the doctor until I get there ok?"

"Got it." The battle begins as each of them summons artifacts of their own. Willie brought out his trustworthy Loxodon Warhammer and held it with only his right hand. Evelyn brought out a Scythe of the Wretched was holding it with both hands. Seeing this, the others were dumbfounded that they could actually use the artifacts they brought forth. The battle itself gets going as each of them move like lightning around the room. In a blink of an eye, the very slow zombies were eliminated with little waste of power leaving the two Kirtren wizards going against the doctor who used them like lab dogs.

"You think defeating me will be that easy," the doctor lets out an evil laugh as he brings forth several artifacts including Adventuring Gear, Vulshok Gauntlets, and Power Armor. "Before I came here, I had a chat with some chick in a red and black outfit and she gave me these cards knowing I might meet you here."

"That figures," Evelyn snapped as she and Willie charged at blinding speed before leaping into the air and attack from above. "A crazy man talking to a crazy woman; what are the odds?" Their attacks were blocked as Habeeb knocked them both back with Willie ending up on his back struggling to get up. Evelyn charged again only to have her scythe blocked and she got knocked back and that's when she went to check on Willie. "That shouldn't have put you down that easily."

"Sorry about that," he smirked getting back up after a few minutes. "When your body feels like it's been hit with a bulldozer and weighed down with a couple tons of cinder blocks, a punch to the gut feels like hell for a few seconds."

"Maybe you should take it easy. You're not at full power and your energy's fading."

"I should but I've wanted his head as long as you and Alicia. Let's just finish this already." She agrees and the battle resumes as Evelyn charges in with her scythe for a frontal attack and as he blocked her, Willie came from his blindside and planted a shot to his head with his warhammer. The shot snapped his neck like a twig killing him instantly.

"You were right in saying not to worry about you." The others came over and checked out the carnage and Jesse was amazed seeing the two wizards with artifacts in their hands.

"How can you two hold those things," Jesse wondered as Willie and Evelyn realized they were still holding their artifacts and quickly recalled them. "I thought only creatures could do that."

"Another of our special abilities thanks to our structures," Willie smiled at him as he got the message. Right at that moment, his wrist communicator went off and as he answered it, it was his parents from inside some cage and then the camera turns to reveal Misty herself with a message for him.

"Misty," he yells out as the others run to see what he was looking at. On the screen, Misty was on the right with his parents tied up in a cage on the left. "What have you done to them? How'd you even get this frequency?"

"Oh relax red wizard," she starts out just calm and relaxed with a demented tone in her voice as she looked into the screen she was looking at as her eyes turned dark. "I'm not going to hurt them . . . yet. If you want to rescue them, just come to the temple and try not that it'll matter. In five days the power of the fallen god will be mine and there's nothing your team or that traitor Evelyn can do about it."

"Honey, please help us," Madison pleads to her son from the cage as Misty turns and snarls at them. "We were captured in Aldertown trying to help people who were hurt in the attack."

"Quiet you two," Misty growls before turning her attention to Jesse once again. "Now, Jesse. You've got five days to rescue you precious family before I offer them up as sacrifices to Karona. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some spellbombs to find." The camera cuts out leaving Jesse seething over what he just saw and heard from their nemesis.

"I'll tear her apart," he angrily says getting his things preparing to head over there to try and rescue them only to be stopped by Evelyn.

"Calm down," she says holding his shoulder to keep him from doing stupid. "How do you think you're getting in that place? It's heavily guarded and you'll be dead before you reach the door."

"She's right," Willie says very confidently with a smile as Jesse calms down and listens. "That's what she wants us to do – react in anger."

"Ok I'll chill for a bit but I am going to rescue them," Jesse responds as he looks at Willie who nods in affirmation with a smile knowing something. "I know that look you get when you're up to something."

"Guilty as charged. The amount of time it took for you to get stark raving mad at Misty's message was the same time it took for me to come up with a plan." The group was elated to hear that much to the bewilderment of Evelyn and Alicia until Kali approaches them.

"It's a good thing," she starts out easing their fears. "He is our lead strategist and he's never steered us wrong." Hearing that, the girls all join up at the computer to listen to what Willie had to say about the next step.

"If Misty thinks that we're going to believe that five day crap then she's full of it," he says looking the map of the country on the screen and sees the chaos energy continue to spread. "Doesn't matter anyway because in three days she'll be dead and all will be good again."

"Ok," Evelyn chimes in getting his attention. "Did you hit your head a little too hard? I thought I heard you say that Misty will be dead in three days."

"You heard right. I honestly believe we have three days to stop her from merging with Karona. After that, the only way to stop her is for Kali to kill her."

"Why me?" Kali mentioned wondering why she had to do it alone.

"You're the only one strong enough to beat her – after we make the conditions favorable of course."

"So what is your plan," Alicia questioned everything she was hearing.

"First we need to secure some of those crystals because we're going to need them for a major offensive of our own."

"You aren't saying what I think you're saying," Jesse says as his eyes widen in realization of what was said as he nods.

"You're serious?" Kali exclaims getting anxious and nervous at the same time. Willie lets out a laugh before confirming her suspicions. The discussion continues until Evelyn finally realizes what he was referring to.

"I don't you if this is brilliant or shear madness," Evelyn sighs as she looks at the map with him. "You're talking about going after the source of the chaos energy right?"

"Exactly," Willie responds with that smile he's harbored since the beginning. "In two days we go and take back Varayan from the chaos." Cheers erupt from the group relieved that they finally get to go home. "First things first though. Evelyn, take Jesse to the temple so he can rescue his parents. You know the place the best so you can get him past the guards. I doubt Misty is going to be there and I'm more than sure that they'll be guarded."

"I'll make trophies out of the decks of whoever's guarding them."

"Good. Next we need to know the conditions and the situation in Varayan and that's where Nick comes in. I've got two tasks for you. First, you know that convergence device I built for that project at school? Nick nods knowing the thing he speaks of. "I need you to get that thing. It's at my house. Then, I need you to scout out the source of the chaos energy that's blanketing the country. Once you find that out, get out of there and get back here."

"If you ask it of me it shall be done," Nick accepts his part of the plan as Willie turns to the sisters.

"Melanie, I need you to head to Solarium and check out the situation there. Once there, you need to find a guy by the name of William Jenkins. He's the head of the resistance forces there and runs the crystal shop with the crystals we need. Time is of the utmost importance on this ok? I have faith in you after what you did in finding Alicia."

"I won't let you down," she says with confidence as she went to make sure her deck was ready to go. "I'll be back in no time."

"Kali, I need to get a measure of your and Elena's power if I'm going to set up the crystals for use when we storm Varayan and the temple in Rovenia so you'll stay here with me and Alicia while we get this nightmare of a lab up and running again. Plus we need someone here to fight off any possible attacks since I'm low on power and Alicia's not a wizard." A flash of light and as it fades away Elena has taken over for Kali.

"I understand what you're doing," she says as he turns to the computer for the activation sequence to get the lab back online. "I'm totally behind you." That evening, everyone rests up for the next day when the preparations begin for the final battle against Misty's quest for ultimate power. As everyone laid down to rest, Willie was looking outside the window thinking about what's coming up as Kali joins him unable to sleep herself.

"You always seem to have a ton on your mind these days huh?" she asks snapping him out of his train of thought.

"I'm good; just can't sleep," Willie responds as they share a quick kiss before going on. "I'm just thinking that Misty has no idea what she's in for. She's not the only one who can pull shock-and-awe tactics."

"Honestly I have to say that this is your most daring operation yet. You sure this is the right strategy for us to take?"

"I'm more than sure. We're done playing on the defensive like we have been since we left Varayan. Since Misty always complains every time we get in her way, let's give her something to complain about."

"That's something we all can agree with."

"_Look out Misty because we're coming for you._" He thinks to himself as she leans on him and after wrapping themselves up in a blanket she dozes off to sleep as Willie lays awake another minute and has one last thought. "_Just a few more days and it'll be all over. We just have to take out Misty and end this nightmare._" His eyes close and he drifts off to a sound sleep hoping that things run smoothly tomorrow so they can properly plan their return to Varayan to save their homes.


	13. Unlocking the Power

_Magic: the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 13: Unlocking the Power 

Snow continues to fall as daybreak comes over the facility that the crew had set up shop as they heard the story from Willie, Alicia and Evelyn about Kirtren's past and their connection to the place. Inside, everyone was already awake and ready to go with the day's multi-tiered mission to get ready for the return to Varayan the following day. Jesse and Evelyn had already left before sunrise to go to the temple and rescue Jesse's parents. Nick and Melanie were all ready to go as well with their respective missions. Nick was to go to Varayan and check things out and get a convergence device for Willie. Melanie was to go to Solarium, meet a guy named William Jenkins and get some crystals that are heavily needed for the next mission. As they started to head out, Willie stops them to remind them of their objectives.

"Wait up you two," he says getting their attention before they opened to the door that led outside into the snow. "Remember that your missions are strictly surveillance – no engaging the enemy if you can help it. We can't risk any injuries at this point."

"We hear ya man," Nick responds as he proceeds to open the door and walks out. Just as Melanie tries to follow him, Willie speaks up with one last word as they leave.

"One more thing. Your missions are time sensitive. Evelyn and Jesse already know that so they got an early start. Do what I told you and get back here and the sooner the better."

"We won't let you down," Melanie gives a thumbs-up as they both climb aboard their dragons for the trip to their respective destinations. "We'll be back as soon as we can." They fly off as Willie heads back inside to try and get the lab up and going again. Back in the lab, Alicia was going over the files to see if there was anything there that could be of some use. Kali was in her usual morning meditation session as she gets pulled into her subconscious for another private chat with Elena. This time they meet up in a dream version of a beach setting with the sun beating down and waves breaking onto the beach.

"So what's the deal with this meeting?" Kali asked as the ladies sat down on the beach facing one another as the sun beats down. "We should be helping Willie in getting us ready to return to our homes."

"This may seem sudden but I needed to speak with you," Elena responds with a blank stare on her face. "You've grown so much since we first met and even Willie has confidence in you that you'll be able to take down Misty."

"Well yeah. Sure he's given me tons of confidence in my skills but we've done this together you and me. We're a package deal. Even with some of your power, it's the group that's given me the strength to get this far."

"I know and that's why I wanted us to meet today. It's time to allow you access to the full extent of my power."

"You're sure about this? Am I really ready for this?"

"I know you are and you've proven it through your battles. It's the same procedure as before – just hold my hands and the power will do the rest." They hold hands and they both become enveloped in a bright white light.

Melanie and Nick fought their way through the snow before Melanie broke off from him to head to her destination of Solarium. Approaching the city gave an astounding view. The city itself was the artifact stronghold as all kinds of artifacts are made here. Most players tend to get their artifact cards here and the selections were a plenty. There were shops that had equipment artifacts, traditional artifacts and artifact creatures. The buildings weren't buildings to say as they were mostly tents with a few solid buildings mostly for homes and some businesses that were there. Overall, Solarium was one of the poorest cities in the entire country. As Melanie made her way into the city, she could also tell that the city was in total disarray. Days of fighting has resulted in many buildings, the few that were actually buildings, uninhabitable and children running wild in the streets with no parental supervision.

"_This is just great,_" Melanie thought to herself as she walked into town and made her way to what she thinks is the main shopping district. "_How am I going to find anything or anyone in this dump?_" She wonders on looking for any sign of the crystal shop or the guy Willie told her to find. "_This is going to take longer than I thought._"

Alicia and Willie had been working on getting the lab up and running for some time when Alicia notices Kali still meditating but a bright white glow coming from her aura. Growing concerned as she sees the glow get brighter, she turns to him to ask about that story.

"What's the deal with her?" she asks getting his attention as he finally notices the power spike. "No person should pack that much power."

"Long story," Willie responds with a smile on his face. "Looks like her and Elena are having a chat for some reason. Let's not bother her until she wakes up."

"If you say so, then I'll leave her alone. I think we've got this computer going again but this ancient piece of junk couldn't process a stand of hair much less modify crystals so we all could use them." She starts up the central computer but the thing makes several erratic noises before completely shutting down. Disgusted, she throws the tools she was using into a corner and sits down taking a break.

"You're right. This thing is a piece of junk but we can't give up. We need to get this thing going if we're to balance the power to the crystals." He examines the machine looking for why the thing shut down. After searching for several seconds, he backs out of the machine and heads straight for the spare parts room. "All I see are some blown fuses and some fried wires. This shouldn't take more than an hour maybe two." He gets the supplies he needs and gets to work trying to restore the computer.

Nick finally lands on the outskirts of the city of Varayan and the sight is not a nice one. The entire city has a veil of darkness surrounding it that is a thick as pea soup. Hesitantly, he walks into the mist and into the city that has gone from bad to worse since they left. Darkness was everywhere and no sunlight could penetrate the city. The streets were empty for the most part except for Misty's servant wizards who were patrolling looking for those who are part of the resistance that was still prevalent with intermittent battles taking place. Most of the residents had evacuated when everything went down. Shaking his head, he went ahead with what he had to do. Figuring he was close to downtown, he decided to see if he could get a bead on where the device controlling the chaos energy happens to be.

"This city is out of control," he mutters to himself as he looks at the scene before him as he wonders around his hometown for the first time in weeks. Following the energy flows in the city leads him to an open farm just outside of Trailview Mall. In the middle of the farm was this storehouse and in it was a device that looked more like a lamp at first look but was actually a device that radiated out negative energy. "Looks like I found what I'm looking for," he mutters to himself as he observes the machine. He turns to head out only to find three wizards guarding the door he came in.

"No one's supposed to be here," the short male said as he readies his dark deck along with the others. "Sorry but I can't let you leave."

"Well," Nick sighs as he flares up his black aura. "I guess I don't have a choice."

Melanie continued on her trek through the carnage that is the city of Solarium trying to find the crystal shop she was to find and get the help of Willie's friend William. Turning a corner to a residential street, screams from a nearby house gets her attention as she goes to check it out. Entering a house with the door knocked in revealed a horrific sight. A group of wizards had forced their way into the home and killed the family living there which included three small children. The dark group that had raided the kitchen were now laying about in the living room when she burst in on the group.

"What do you guys think you're doing?" she demanded of them as they all got up with anger in their eyes. "This breaks all codes of conduct for us wizards."

"What do you care?" the dark-skinned female leading the group snapped back. "The only one we care about is following our master's orders."

"Then you're fools." A skirmish broke out but it didn't even last thirty seconds. As soon as Melanie summoned her Fangren Hunter, the others bolted out of the residence letting her search the place for the source of the screen. In a bedroom closet she finds a young girl who had managed to hide from the invaders. "Come on out," she tells her with a smile on her face as the child does just that. "You're safe now."

Jesse and Evelyn finally arrive at the Temple of the False God site in Rovenia. The temple was all but complete but was missing part of the tower that was nearing completion. Jesse was in shear awe of the structure that rose to at least thirty stories in places. The brownish structure was surrounded by a completed fortification known as Darksteel Garrison to keep it from being destroyed by enemy wizards. That structure had a height of eight stories so that people can't just jump over it to get inside.

"Now this is impressive," Jesse mentions looking over the place amazed at how far it's come. "When we checked this place out before it wasn't anywhere near this point."

"Yeah," Evelyn responds with a bit of regret in her voice. "Misty accelerated things after she heard about Brian. I definitely wish now that I never got involved with her insane schemes."

"Relax. I know you feel bad about being a part of all of this. We'll take her down first then figure out what to do with this place. Right now we need to find and rescue my parents from this madwoman before they become sacrifices. I trust you have a way inside?"

"Of course," she responds as she motions for him to follow. They land in the temple's central plaza and quietly made their way inside of the temple. The various corridors had that castle feel but the residential areas were numerous. The main altar room is where the merging ritual is going to take place. Once inside, they make their way down towards the holding room where they keep prisoners. "If I'm right, they're holding your parents in one of the holding rooms down below."

"Just as long as I get them out of here safe and sound, I don't care where they are." They roll on down to the holding room making sure to keep a low profile and not attracting the guards on patrol throughout the facility. Sneaking their way into the holding area gave another sight. The area had up to fifty different rooms each holding two prisoners each. The prisoners themselves were from all over the country and consisted of wizards that were captured to healers that were resistant to aid in helping constructing the temple. Some of the prisoners even cringed as they saw Evelyn walk into the room.

"Needless to say I actually put a few of these people in here," she sadly sets as Jesse scans the room for his parents who call out from one of the nearby cell doors.

"Help us," Madison calls out for anyone that would hear. That gets Jesse's attention as he runs to the cell door and sees his parents for the first time since the day before they all left their hometown.

"Mom, dad," he calls to them as they run to the door to see their son. "My friend and I are going to get you out of here."

"That's great son," Jeremy says with a bit of concern. "What about everyone else in here? We just can't leave them here."

"We know that," Evelyn responds walking up to them and joins the conversation. "We're getting everyone out of here. It's the least I can do to make amends to some of them."

"Well good luck with that," a female voice rings out getting everyone's attention. Turning around, the two wizards see Katie walking into the room with her soldier's deck ready to roll. "I can't believe you turned on the master Evelyn. When Misty resurrects Karona we would've been all powerful."

"You're a bigger fool than I thought," Evelyn snapped back at her as her multi-colored aura flares up. "Misty's in this for herself and she has no intention with sharing that power with anyone but herself."

"Liar! I believe in her and I know she'll bring me along when she becomes the overlord of the world."

"If you believe that, then where are those other two stooges that are with you?"

"Misty told me their services were no longer needed so I left it at that."

"That's not good. She probably eliminated them one she got what she wanted from them. She'll do the same to you."

"Whatever. I'm not letting you walk out of here with the prisoners."

"Just try and stop us." A battle breaks out between Evelyn and Katie as Jesse sneaks off and finds the switch opening all of the doors in the room freeing all of the prisoners in the room. He sneaks all of them out as the women proceed to beat each other to a pulp.

Melanie continued her search for the crystal shop in the wreck that is downtown Solarium after guiding the girl she found in that house to some relatives. Not very many stores have anything in stock when the chaos ran through town. Eventually, she came across a huge battle between a group of about eight to ten cloaked wizards and a resistance group of about the same number. It was obvious who was in charge of the resistance group as a husky dark-skinned individual led the group. Figuring he was the one she was sent to find, she went up to him as his group engaged a group of wizards.

"Excuse me," she gains his attention diverting him from the battle for a second. "I hate to bother you in the middle of a fight but I'm looking for a guy named William Jenkins. Have you heard of him?"

"You're looking at him," William confirms his identity getting a smile from Melanie as he went on. "So what business you have with me huh?" A blast from a fire spell startles them both as she explains the situation to him and when she finishes, he gets a smile on his face. "So, Willie sent you here for the energy crystals I've been working on. I should've guessed. He's always working on something. Well, I do have them at my shop ready for him but first we have to get to my shop and thus this battle."

"Not a problem. Give me three minutes." Melanie steps up into the fray and her green aura rises from her as she steps to the head of the group. Summoning a Ravenous Baloth and Enormous Baloth, she shocked the cloaks in backing down and five of them were sent running away in fear. Those that stayed to fight lost their creatures rather quickly and to put a quick end to this little conflict, she casts three Torrent of Fire cards to finish them off killing two of them and running off the other. "There you go. Now we can get to your shop. I am in a bit of a time crunch." Not questioning how she put an end to this so quickly, William takes her to his shop to get the crystals.

Nick had been bloodied from his scrap trying to get out of the area where the chaos device was set up but he kept going on to his second objective to visit Willie's house and get that convergence device he built some time ago. Arriving in Willie's neighborhood revealed a secure feeling as the homes on that street, including Kali and Melanie's place next door, were untouched through all of the chaos. Needing to clean himself up, he goes inside the empty house, freshens himself up and in Willie's room, he finds the convergence device and quickly makes his way out of town.

"This town is a mess. Disabling that thing is going to take some work," he says to himself as he climbs on his dragon and heads back towards the lab having completed his mission. "We're going to have our work cut out for us when we try and take back the city." Passing through the mist into the snowy countryside, he takes one last look at the city in the mist and shakes his head in disgust as he flies off into the snowstorm.

In the lab, Willie had just finished repairs on the central computer and fired it up to see if the fixes had worked. This time the computer made some noise but came online without much issue. At that same moment, the white aura around Kali faded with her appearance the same as before. The only difference was that her power had gone way up. Willie noticed the difference immediately.

"I guess you two have fully merged now huh?" he asked her as she got up from her meditation session. "I can tell from your power level."

"Yeah," she responded in a double voice confirming that she and Elena have become one entity. "It feels incredible. This power is insane."

"I can sense it. Just don't let it go to your head otherwise you'll end up like Misty." She nods as he goes on. "Now we need to hook you up to the computer and get a sense of your power so we can set it into the crystals whenever your sister gets here." Alicia begins attaching sensors to Kali so the computer can read her aura power and power up the crystals. As this is happening, Melanie walks in with a box of crystals she obtained from William in Solarium.

"Did someone order a bunch of power crystals?" she smarts entering the room and seeing her sister hooked up to the central computer. "Don't tell me you're turning my sister into a science project."

"Oh just relax," Willie responds as he turns on the sensors. "Your sister's power is what we're powering the crystals with so put them in that chamber in the central unit over there and I can get this over with." Melanie complies and takes the crystals from the box and puts them into the unit as he turns to Kali. "Ok Kali. Raise your aura to full power and keep it there for about thirty seconds as the computer reads your power and transplants some of your energy into the crystals."

"This won't affect my power any wouldn't it?" she asks before committing to this procedure.

"You'll be fine. This was what this place was designed for: to read auras and copy the power into power crystals to give warriors like us power boosts. Trust me." She nods and does as he asks by raising her aura to its full potential. The computer begins reading her power a bit at a time and transferring a copy of that power to the crystals. Everyone else in the room is astounded at the shear extent of her power as it goes higher and higher with each second. "Now that's impressive." The process goes on like that for a minute before Kali brings her aura down from exhaustion.

"Need something to eat after that," she rambles trying to catch her breath. "Sorry I couldn't hold it for as long as you wanted."

"You did fine. We got more than we needed. I didn't think the merge would've made you that much more powerful. The crystals will be ready in the morning." Nick staggers into the room completely exhausted and barely able to keep upright. Blood still trickles down his face from his battle with the cloaks near the device. He tries to take a step and collapses only to be caught by Jesse's parents Jeremy and Madison as they enter the room along with Jesse and Evelyn who's banged up herself from her battle with Katie.

"What in the world happened to you two?" Alicia asks as she begins to heal up Nick first seeing he was pretty messed up. "I didn't think a simple surveillance mission ended with blood on your faces."

"Sorry about the no combat provision," Nick breathes slowly as Alicia healed his wounds. "Had no choice but I did find a device that's been pumping chaos energy around town like you suspected."

"It's ok man," Willie reassures him over the events that happened to him. "At least you confirmed my suspicions and now we need to disable it once we get there. For now just relax." Nick closes his eyes to rest as he turns to Evelyn and Jesse. "Looks like things went well at the temple seeing his parents here safe and sound."

"Better than anticipated," Jesse smiles as his parents look over the central computer with interest. "Not only we were able to free them but we also freed all of the prisoners inside the temple. That'll give Misty something to get mad about."

"Plus we also learned that she killed two of her allies," Evelyn adds holding her left arm that was still bleeding from her battle. "That was before I killed the one who told me that."

"That is disturbing but we can't worry ourselves about it," Willie adds in deep in thought. "We know we have our work cut out for us now we've stirred up a hornet's nest. No doubt Misty has found out you've been there and I'm sure she'll beef up the security around the chaos device in Varayan."

"Something's been bugging me," Melanie remembers as she stands up and faces him as he looks at something on the computer. "What's the deal with those spellbombs? Aren't they needed for this ritual Misty is trying to pull?"

"They aren't needed but their power is. A great deal of power is needed to do what she's trying to so she wants to compensate the power part by using those things. As I've said, we stop the ritual then we don't have to worry about it and if it does happen, that's where your sister comes in." The group disperses to rest up and engage in some mindless chatter for the remainder of the night.

Misty returned to the temple after a frustrating search for the spellbombs that turned up nothing. Walking towards the kitchen, she sees a number of her guards knocked out and a few of them are dead. Growing angrier, she searches for Katie looking for answers and when she gets to the holding area, she sees Katie lying in a heap of her own blood and all of the prisoners gone.

"What in the hell happened here?" she demanded looking at the carnage before realizing who it was. "It had to have been those meddling pests. I'll rip them apart myself." Just then her cell phone rings and it's one of the cloaks in Varayan with news of his own. "What is it?"

"Sorry to bother you madam," the individual mentions as he goes on. "We caught the black wizard wondering around the chaos energy device and the guards we had watching it have been taken out. We need guidance on what course of action we should take."

"This is ridiculous. That blue wizard must be back; however, he is one smart opponent but I'm smarter. Double security around the device and send a few here to the temple. I'll increase security here as well. Now don't bother me again. I have to prepare for battle." She hangs up on her servant and dials a new number and a male voice answers. "Glad I got you. I have a job for you."

"Does it involve a certain wizard," the voice on the other end mentions and Misty confirms. "Tell me more." The conversation goes into the early evening.

Darkness set in at the lab near Kirtren and the crew had all but called it a night as they rest and get their minds ready for what's to come tomorrow. Evelyn was with Melanie in the training area as Melanie was working on summoning and controlling her legendary creature Kamahl, Fist of Krosa she was given during the events in Valderia's Peak. Nick and Jesse were adjusting their decks for the coming conflict the next day. Willie was way past out cold from the day of working on the computer and getting it running. Kali was looking out the window trying to get her mind at ease as Alicia comes up for a last minute chat.

"You seem to have a ton on your mind," Alicia startles her as they have a late night chat. "Want to talk about it?"

"Not really," Kali responds looking out the window. "I'm just anxious about these next two days. I just hope that I can take Misty down."

"Don't worry about it. You know what Willie always says: if you doubt yourself before the battle then you've already lost."

"I know. He has a lot of faith in both me and Elena. I'm not doubting myself; I'm just anxious like everyone else."

"You two seem to be the tightest of the group. It's almost as if you two are going together or something."

"We are but it's no one's business. Not going into it right now. I'm turning in so good night." Kali heads off and drifts off to sleep next to Willie. Alicia just smiles and leans against the wall and finally heads off to sleep as Evelyn and Melanie come from the training area and get some rest themselves.

The next morning was a clear, sunny day as the group of seven packed up and got on three dragons piloted by Willie, Melanie and Jesse and made their way towards Varayan. Approaching the mist surrounded city, Nick shakes his head as they landed and observed from ground level.

"Well Nick," Willie stares at the wall of mist in shock. "You weren't kidding about the mist. This is going to be a long day."

"There are cloaks from all the towns all over the city," Nick confirmed. "Getting to that chaos device will not be easy. I'm sure that thing will be heavily guarded."

"Good thing these are ready. Everyone take one and link your aura up to it." Each person takes a crystal and puts it into their communicators and links it to their aura. The temporary energy boost shocks them for a sec but they settle in. "The crystals are only to be used as a last resort. They will give you a power boost that will last for only about thirty minutes so don't lean on it unless you have to. Is everyone ready to do this?"

"You know I am," Evelyn says flaring up her rainbow-based aura. "It's time to send Misty another message that we're not to be messed with."

"Remember the objective to disable the chaos the device and take back the town. Let's do this." The seven walk into the mist unaware that they are about to walk directly into a gauntlet in their quest to disable the chaos device.


	14. Returning Home

_Magic: the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles _

Chapter 14: Returning Home

Stepping on the other side of the mist gave a sight to see for the other Varayan wizards as their hometown had turned into their worst nightmare. There was no daylight coming through the mist making it constantly nighttime. No sooner they entered the city they encountered a group of wizards waiting on them to arrive.

"The master said that you'll be here," one of them said as all of them flared their dark auras and summoned various birds and beasts. "Too bad this is as far as you're going to get." Seeing this, the others went to react but Willie put out his arms stopping them.

"Wait a second gang," he cautions as he gets a sense of their power. "They're way stronger than what we've dealt with until now. Best if we don't engage anyone until we get to where that device is. If we waste energy here we might not be strong enough to handle the threat later." Several of the beasts attack causing the group to react and dodge.

"We have to engage these guys if we're getting past," Jesse pleaded as cards are dialed up on his communicator ready for use. "Even if they are stronger, we're going to have to fight them eventually."

"Not at this moment. Yeah they're stronger but we need to conserve energy as the chaos device is likely heavily guarded with dark cloaks stronger than these guys."

"But we do have these crystals so we can engage them if we need to," Kali responded as started down the six dark cloaks encircling the group. "The power boost would be more than enough to take them down, right?"

"True but there's something else we need to consider. The more we fight the more chaos energy that thing puts out, and since we're right in the heart of the chaos we need to pick our spots carefully."

"I get what you're saying," Melanie responded as they dodge a variety of attacks and take defensive positions. "No lengthy battles but we can do small stuff to defend ourselves."

"Exactly. No battles but Jesse's right about one thing; we need to defend ourselves."

"Got it," Jesse smiled as he proceeded to summon an Avarax to defend him and the others proceeded to summon creatures as well: Melanie summoned one of her favorite creatures in Fangren Hunter; Nick summoned his Blastoderm; Evelyn summoned her Aven Fateshaper; Kali has summoned her Scorched Rusalka, and Willie had out his Venomspout Brackus.

"Remember not to use too many cards but we need to defend ourselves. Now let's get to that farm and do what we came here for and take back this city." Cheers went up from the group as they went to work running off that group of Crimson Fighters. "If they were that strong, no telling what we're in for when we get to that farm. Let's get moving." The fighters were scared off thus allowing the group to keep moving.

Misty had arrived at the barn earlier in the day and brought over eighty wizards to aid in protecting the device from the group of seven on their way to disable it. As the others take positions to await the arrival of the wizards, she approaches the machine.

"Those morons are not to come anywhere near this thing," she demands to everyone inside the barn as she checks out the machine. "Kill them if you have to but keep them away from this as it spreads the chaos."

"Yes ma'am," everyone in the barn says at once as she turns to head out. "Since you have things in hand here, I'll head off and finish getting ready for battle." Walking outside, her cell phone rings and seeing a familiar number to her, she answers. "What do you want?"

"Making sure that things are going well," a deep male voice responds on the other end. "We're ahead of schedule as far as preparations go. We just need the blood of the one with two souls."

"Not to worry about it. I'm more than sure that the ones opposing us have no idea that we're ready to summon Karona in two more days. Once I merge with her, I can't wait to see the looks on their faces right before we kill them."

"You know our deal. You get the one with two souls in it and I get their blue wizard for myself. We have some unfinished business."

"Yeah whatever you say. I'll see you back at the temple." She hangs up and walks off into the mist that seems to get thicker with each passing minute.

The gang of seven made their way towards Trailview Mall to chill out for a bit before heading on towards the farm. Walking into the place was a bit of nostalgia for Nick, Jesse, Willie and Kali as they were here the day the chaos first reigned supreme. The mall itself was empty now with scorns of small creatures such as Carrion Rats and Severed Legions running about.

"Last time we were here over thirty people died," Nick stated as they all sat down to rest their feet as their creatures they summoned a while back had formed a perimeter to keep attackers at bay. "Funny how things got so out of control we couldn't stay in the city."

"I hear ya," Jesse responded shaking his head hearing what his friend said. "Who knew we'd be back here in our hometown again saving it this soon."

"Circumstances gave us this chance," Willie cuts in overhearing the start of this conversation. "With all that's happened here and the other places we've been since we left, we're stronger and now with the crystals, we have what we need to take down Misty and save everyone."

"I've been wondering about something," Melanie entered the conversation with a ton on her mind. "How did you know that my sister would be the one to have to battle Misty? They were once friends now they have to battle for the fate of all of us."

"Not to mention how did you know about Elena and her connection to all of this?" Kali also added adding to the mystery.

"One at a time," Willie calms them down as he starts into it. "It was shortly after I joined Nick and Jesse. I went around town one day while I was trying to find a spot to practice using my cards on my own. As I entered the park, I had a chance encounter with Kali and some other ladies as they confronted some guy who's been stealing rare cards from everyone in the area."

"I remember that," Kali responded triggering a memory from her past. "That guy was nothing but a bully. He pushed me but I don't know what happened after that."

"I do. A light, the same one that comes from you when Elena takes over, came out and the next thing anyone knew, he was motionless on the sidewalk. You and the rest of your group scattered in fear. It was only a second but I saw it all. Not to mention," Willie recalls another thing about that day. "That was also the day that I acquired Ixidor from another trader."

"That explains why you sent Kali to us that day the warhawks attacked at school," Nick realized thinking back on the day that this whole saga got started.

"She had the potential to be a wizard but you two knew how to find out for sure. That was around the time I got that email about what went down in Rovenia."

"What email?" Evelyn asked surprisingly. "I didn't see anyone with an iPad or anything like that while we were out there."

"It was one of my sources. It's how I keep up with events that take place around the country. It was mysterious enough that I looked into it and that's how I learned of Karona."

"It's almost as if you guys have been right on Misty's heels this whole time," Alicia mentioned as the group continued in their conversation for another few minutes.

"Shouldn't we get going?" Evelyn asked getting restless as she stood up looking around at the dark, quiet mall. "Strolling down memory lane is good and all, but we do have a job to do."

"Yeah, you're right," Willie gets up and recalls his creature and the others do the same. "It's time to take care of business so let's roll." Everyone heads out of the mall and continues their trek towards their objective.

Traveling by foot to preserve energy, the wizards stayed close to the main road as they approached on the road from the southeast. Along the way were trees that lined the road and in one of them, a black cloaked wizard was staked out and watched as the wizards made their way up the street towards the farm. As they pass, he gets on his phone and calls up to the farmland with a simple message: "They're coming." With that, the cloaks at the farm start spreading out around the property waiting for them to arrive. As they do come into sight of the farm in question, various fire-spells ring out at the group forcing them to react.

"Look out," Alicia yells from the back of the group as she notices several lightning bolts along with Fireballs and Torrent of Fires.

"Whoa," Willie barely dodges as he ducks behind a tree just outside of the property as he uses his communicator to scroll for his counter cards as the group does the same. "This makes getting on the farm difficult let alone getting to that device. Looks like we're in for a long fight."

"Any ideas on how we get past them?" Melanie asks as the spells continue to rain down on the group with them periodically having to move to avoid getting hit. Getting to his feet, Willie uses another of his mana abilities to scan the area.

"I'm sensing over eighty wizards just on this property," he states as the group gathers around him and Nick summoned his Smokespew Invoker to cloud the area in smog to hide the group. "Most of them are outside attacking us but I sense four strong auras inside near the device."

"So what do we do about the attackers," Nick asks worried that his creature wouldn't last for too much longer. "I can't keep this up forever."

"Simple, Nick. You and Melanie clear a path for the rest of us so we can get inside. Do what you have to but make sure we get inside first then the two of you follow. I'll decide the rest once we get inside."

"Fine by me," Melanie affirmed as Nick recalled his creature and both of them went on the offensive. Nick summoned his Blastoderm and Melanie summoned her Brontotherium and enchanted it with Armadillo Cloak. They began advancing and were making progress until another group of wizards came out and summoned a variety of flyers including Screeching Seahawk, Costal Watcher, Aven Warhawks, Ascending Aven and Fledgling Mawcor that all started dealing damage to the two attackers. Nick and Melanie were doing all they can to avoid taking damage.

"Now I'm beginning to get annoyed," Willie snarled as he searched his database again before summoning one of his new acquisitions in Thundercloud Elemental. "This should put a stop to those pesky flyers long enough for us to move." He uses his creature's effect to ground all flyers and stop all weaker creatures in their tracks. To further protect his creature, he casts Pemmin's Aura on it to keep it from being targeted. "We'd better get going. No telling how long my elemental's effect is going to last." The group follows his lead and follows Nick and Melanie as their beasts carve a pathway of carnage leading to the barn doors. Nick climbs off his creature and recalls it before kicking in the doors allowing the group inside.

The device is sitting in the middle of the barn with four strong cloaked wizards feeding chaos energy into the device. They are in a trance-like state bound by mystical chains linking their auras to the device converting their power into dark energy that's been covering the country for quite some time. As Willie observes them, they don't even recognize his or the group's presence in the room.

"Something's wrong here," he wonders as he gets a closer look at the chaos device. As he reached out to touch the device, a shield comes up and the energy flings him back a few feet putting him on his back. "Ok that hurt something awful," he mutters as he struggles to get back up.

"What do you mean something's wrong?" Evelyn asked as she looks at the cloaks as they continue to feed energy into the device. "It's almost as if they're enchanted by a card or something."

"That's the thing. I'm not sensing any cards in use inside of this barn so who knows what's been keeping them like this."

"Could it be an aura-based ability?"

"I'm not picking up any other auras other than ours and those four. I have to admit; on this one I'm stumped."

"So you're saying we can't even touch this thing?" Jesse says out of frustration. "That means coming over here was a complete bust."

"I might have an idea," Kali steps forward and gets Willie's convergence device out of his bag. "What if we use this to overload the machine and free them and take the device out?" Willie gave it some thought before he responded.

"That might actually work," he smiled and tried to get to the center where the device was. He put the device right on top of the device and began to hook it up to the device when a group of wizards broke into the barn surprising the group. "Hold them back. I'll need at least ten minutes." The group springs into action with everyone summoning the creatures they had out earlier in the day to defend against the wizards. The five fighters were slowly being overwhelmed by the power of the cloak wizards as Willie worked quickly to reroute the power to his convergence device. This device was rather small with wires to redirect and change the flow of mana and other kinds of power. As he connected two of the wires, a blast landed right next to him getting his attention for a second.

"I don't know how much longer we can keep this up," Melanie yells out as her beast is beaten and she suffers slight shock. "Their power is insane."

"Tell the others to give me two more minutes and I should have this thing rendered useless. Then fall back and cover me." She does just that as he continues to work on connecting his convergence device to the chaos energy pump. During those two minutes, Nick and Evelyn were sent flying after their creatures bit the dust but got back up and back into the fray. Willie had finished connecting the device by then and was doing some calculations on his communicator to make sure the balance was just right. "Now that should do it." He activates the device and within seconds, the four around the main device were freed as they fell unconscious to the barn floor. The dark energy from the device changes to light and the darkness around the city starts to lift. "That should do it."

"They're weakening," Kali notices as the cloaks around the group begin to writhe in pain as the dark energy leaves them. "Now we can finish them."

"Don't bother," Willie comes back getting up after disconnecting his device from the energy pump. "Their bodies are going through a major shock as they return to normal. Doing anything to them now would kill them and we don't want that on our hands. The same thing is going to happen across the country as the light spreads dispelling the dark." They all head outside as the sun finally shines down on the city for the first time in who knows how long.

"Wonder how long it's been since the city has seen the sun," Nick wonders as the group begins seeing to the cloaks who are back to normal and some of them head for their homes.

The group heads to city hall to find and release the mayor who had been captured by Misty the day she overran the place. Once they found him, he was more than gracious to his saviors.

"Thank you very much," the mayor graciously shakes the hands of each of them. "Tonight on the news I'll make a statement saying that the city is safe and I've already ordered city crews to begin restoring services to our city immediately."

"That's a start," Melanie mentions looking out as the street lights around the city come on for the first time in who knows how long. "By the way, shouldn't we scour the city for any remnants of Misty's group?"

"Not a problem," the mayor smiled at the group. "Most of them left once the darkness fell over the city. Any that were left have returned to normal. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a statement I have to prepare for and I'm sure you want to add something for the one who did this as well." The group steps out after taping a statement of their own allowing the mayor to take care of his business.

"Man I'm glad to be home again," Jesse sighs in joy as the group exits city hall as the sun begins setting in the west. Passing by the mall and into Willie and Kali & Melanie's neighborhood, an idea suddenly popped into Nick's head.

"You guys know what I've got a hankering for?" he asked with a devilish smile rubbing his chest from the hunger pains that suddenly struck him. The group looked at him unsure of what he's talking about. "I want a boiled lobster!" The group erupts in complete laughter again but Nick remains steadfast with his intentions. "Seriously, I think it's time for a . . ."

"Seafood party!" Willie finishes the sentence with a smile realizing what he was really up to. "I think we've earned one for saving the city." He presses a button on his communicator that sends a message to every phone in the city. "_Attention wizards and citizens of Varayan. It's time for another of my city famous seafood jamborees. You know the place so come on out for some good food, music and wish us luck as we take on Misty tomorrow._"

"You two are going to have fun," Kali mentions to Evelyn and Alicia as Willie finishes his message. "His parties are the best in town." The gang heads towards Willie's house for the party that goes on into the night.

The front yard of Willie's house had been turned into a party zone with tables of all kinds of seafood, lights as bright as the sun and actual entertainment with music speakers blaring full blast that can be heard from miles. Many wizards and people start showing up right after the lights came on in the city.

"This definitely was a good idea," Nick salivated over the crab and lobster combo he had on his plate as he looked over the scene. "One last jam before we take out the boss lady."

"With the city safe we can do as we wish," Willie responded as he notices Kali chatting with some of her friends who had been freed from Misty's control. "If you will excuse me gentlemen," he walks off towards her as Nick and Jesse shake their heads smiling. Kali notices him approaching and waves off her friends."

"Hey," she waves as she takes his hand.

"Hey," he responds. Just as he was about to speak, Melanie steps up to the microphone on the makeshift stage in front of the garage along with her band that she had formed last year and gets everyone's attention.

"We'll talk later," Kali whispers to him as the crowd gathers at the stage and she goes to join in rooting on her sister and her group. Before they start, another voice rings out getting everyone's attention as they look up.

"Don't tell me we missed the party," a familiar voice rings out as several dragons land at once to reveal Jamie and his team from Livalia. "We love to have a good time."

"Nothing like a familiar face that's for sure," Willie smiled as he greeted Jamie and his crew. "Good to see you again."

"Likewise," Jamie returns the greeting. "You're looking good considering the last I remember you were in a pool of your own blood."

"Long story considering I was out cold for over two days. For now I'd say grab some of that food on the table and enjoy the show." Over on the stage, Melanie and her band had finished setting up and were ready to go.

"What's going on Varayan!" Melanie yells out as the crowd seemed to get bigger. "This is my band called Spirit's Wind and we're going to sing a few songs for you all this evening." Cheers went up from the growing crowd as she went on. "Right now I would like to have my sister join me on stage." Kali nervously walks on stage as her sister drags her front and center. "My sister and the rest of my team will head out tomorrow to finish Misty off once and for all for all she's done to our city. Our first song tonight will reflect the final battle that's coming." The band begins playing a modified version of the song _Girlfight_ by Brooke Valentine. The crowd got into the show as they jammed along with the song and the rest of the impromptu concert.

Several hours later as the party came to a close and everyone cleared out to head home for the night, the two groups of wizards cleaned up and were hanging out inside Willie's living room to chill for the night and to get their minds right for the next day and their final mission.

"So what brings you all to our end of town other than the party?" Melanie asked trying to relax after her band rocked the stage at the show.

"We wanted to check out how you all party and see if you wanted help taking down Misty," Jamie responded.

"Plus we basically got bored watching our town," Amy responded chilling out next to Melanie.

"Glad to work with you guys again," Willie smiled knowing the two groups work very well together. "We'll head out in the morning so you all can sleep here for tonight."

"Pleasure's all ours," Jamie shakes Willie's hand as Alicia gives the Livalian wizards crystals that are the same as the ones that Willie's team have. "Take one and react it with your aura." They do so with the same reactions they had when the others did the same the day before.

"Who's up for a little pass the story game?" April asks as they all get a story going that goes deep into the night.

Misty was in her suite at the temple watching some late night comedies on television when her show gets interrupted with breaking news:

_Breaking News: This is Max Vaspain with Varayan News with this breaking news alert: The city of Varayan has been liberated. Earlier today, a group of wizards disabled the chaos device that caused the city to be surrounded in mist. Life in this city is slowly returning to normal as reconstruction has started. The mayor spoke out earlier this evening: "_The city is free from Misty's control and slowly services are coming back online. Now a word from our saviors who saved us all from the darkness,_" the mayor states standing aside as Willie takes his place on the screen._

"_We will make sure this never happens again," Willie states on the recording from earlier in the day. "By the way Misty, that's check and soon it'll be checkmate for you and Karona. We're coming for you next."_ The mayor comes back on the screen with another announcement.

"_I'll begin discussing with the town council new measures to make sure nothing like what happened here ever happens again. That is all for now."_ The reporter comes back on to sign off for the night.

_This has been Max Vaspain with this Breaking News report. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming._

Seeing that report, Misty threw her remote right into the television breaking it out of frustration and disgust that her enemies now had the advantage and took out the source of the chaos. One of her remaining minions came into the room out of concern.

"You ok mistress," she said concerned about the crash. "I heard a crash and . . ."

"Don't worry about me," she snaps at the minion. "Just go and get anyone left and gather them in the altar room. We have lost our advantage and now our opponents are heading straight for us. I have to merge with Karona while the balance of power is still in my favor but its fading fast." The minion acknowledges and runs off to do as the master asked. Shortly thereafter, her phone rings again and the same voice from before was on the other end.

"Looks like your enemies will be coming your way sooner than anticipated," the voice answers. "You've lost your edge and need to speed things up if we are to succeed."

"Don't worry about the plan. Just make sure that blue wizard doesn't interfere with the final battle at any cost."

"It will be done and the white one is all yours."

The next morning the ten wizards plus Alicia made final preparations for the showdown that would decide the fate of the country. During the night, Willie had improved everyone's communicators as well as made a set for Jamie and his team. The new improvements allowed them to use their cards without actually having to draw a card to use it. They were also tied in to their card collections allowing them to diversify what they like to use in battle. After packing up, they headed out on their various dragons heading for the Temple of the False God.

"So what's the plan?" Darren asked wondering just how they were even going to get into the place. "It's obviously well guarded and with that fortification, getting in is going to be a challenge."

"There is no real plan this time," Willie answered to the shock of the group. "We go in and take out Misty and anyone else that gets in our way. It's as simple as that."

"Easiest plan I've heard this entire time," Nick smirked as they land just outside of the temple gates.

"Is everyone ready to do this?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Kali confirmed as Daniel casts Rain of Rust on the fortification destroying enough of it to allow them inside. The group of eleven walked into the temple knowing that the fate of the entire country and everyone in it was now in their hands.


	15. Balance of Power

_Magic: the Gathering – The Wizard Chronicles_

Chapter 15: Balance of Power

Walking down the corridor behind the main door of the temple, the group of wizards head to the altar room, where they believe Misty is waiting for them, with a purpose. Nick and Darren lead the way as they are itching to get into it with any enemy wizard that crosses their path. At the back of the group, Kali looks like she's got a ton on her mind as the time inches closer for her battle with Misty. Amy notices and drops back to talk to her.

"Feeling anxious?" she asks her as they all round a corner and down another hallway that didn't seem to end. "Try to relax ok? We're all feeling anxious that this will all be over soon."

"I know," Kali responds looking at the ceiling of the hallway still deep in thought. "I'm just nervous about the whole thing. It's going to be difficult having to be the one to kill someone you used to be close to."

"We have your back so you can do this."

"Thanks." The gang continues on down the hallway until they approach two very tall red and black doors with the mark of the servants of Karona on it. Everyone stared in amazement for a second at the sheer size of the doors until Evelyn snaps them out of it.

"The sacrificial altar is beyond these doors," she mentions to them as she sighs again before the doors. "For once my former connection to this place does come in handy for the forces of good."

"Then what are we waiting for," Jamie smirks as he flares up his green aura. "Let's finish this already so we can sleep in peace." Evelyn pushes the doors open being the only one to do so and they all enter the altar.

The room was wide yet large and circular with an open roof dead in the center of the room. The height goes up four floors with numerous balconies looking at the room from various locations. On the floor below the open roof, a strange symbol was engraved on the ground that represented the direction of the six major cities and their primary colors. As the group entered into the room, the doors closed behind them startling them for a second before another set of doors opens to reveal the master of the house, Misty, walking out wearing a red and black outfit similar to the one she wore when she gave the speech to her troops two days prior.

"Welcome to my temple," she walks out into the light in full battle mode. "Come to hand yourselves over to the all powerful?"

"Save your speeches for someone who cares," Willie snaps back as the group surrounds the demented girl with Alicia standing by the now closed doors. "We're here to put an end to your crazy schemes once and for all."

"Don't worry blue wizard; I'm not the talking type." She flares up her dark red aura and pulls out her dark deck. "I believe your white wizard has something I want so step forward and let's do this."

"Now hold on a second," a voice rings out getting everyone's attention. Misty turns around and sees a man come out of the doorway she came from minutes prior. He had mostly metal for his limbs and in his left arm, his deck was inside a sleeve. His presence disgusted Misty and at the same time got Willie all riled up as he lit up like a Christmas tree flaring his blue aura.

"Tell me that's not who I think it is?" he demanded getting angrier by the second. "There's no way he should even be alive."

"I see you two have some history," she smirks seeing the reaction on his face as the man entered the room. The others are dumbfounded by their friend's reaction and were hesitant to speak up until Evelyn realizes who it is.

"That's him," she asks him getting more frightened by the second. "The one you spoke of who can manipulate the auras?"

"You two know who that monstrosity is?" Melanie asks the question that everyone else is thinking.

"Unfortunately I do," Willie responded with regret. "Everyone, this is Silas McPherson and he's also known as the puppet master."

"I'm touched that you remembered who I am," Silas smarted trying to get a reaction from Willie who has stared him down since he entered. "I helped the lady over there get the power she needed to summon Karona and in return she gave me the power to kill you after what you did to me all those years ago."

"What does he mean by that?" Amy asked as the group is unsure on what to do about this development.

"The short version," Willie started into the abbreviated version of this story. "He kidnapped me six months after the experiments ended and used me as his personal mana pump for over two years until I shoved him off a cliff into the swamps surrounding Salvenburg. Last I saw of him he was being eaten alive by some Anurid Murkdivers."

"This trip down memory lane is fascinating and all," Misty interrupts getting annoyed, "but it's putting me to sleep. Can I please get on with killing this girl and that other spirit so I can become all powerful?"

"Not a chance that's going to happen," Kali came back with a serious tone in her voice as her white aura comes to life. "If you want Elena's power then you're going to have to go through me first."

"Then I'll take my leave then," Silas motions as he continues to stare down Willie walking backwards. "There's still the matter of that score that I need to settle with you." He disappears into the light of the next room. Willie starts after him but is stopped by Jamie.

"Want one of us to back you up?" he asked him who still hasn't taken his eyes off of where Silas went. "That guy looks like he's just as twisted as anything we've faced before."

"No," Willie sternly answered. "Silas and I have unfinished business. Stay here and watch Kali's back against Misty. I'll be back before the balance of power is decided. If things get out of hand or the worst case scenario comes to pass then go the alternative we discussed last night." He walks off to go deal with Silas as Jamie rejoins the group as the battle between the two ladies gets started.

Silas stood firm as Willie walked into the room with his aura as full as he could get it as he still struggled with powering up. He had his trustworthy Loxodon Warhammer in hand as he stood opposite the man who tortured him for over two years.

"So here we are again," Silas smirks as he equipped himself with a Leonin Scimitar. "I finally get my revenge on you."

"All talk and no action makes me a very unhappy wizard," Willie responded with a growl as he took a battle stance. "This time when I put you down you're going to stay down."

"Let's see you try to put me down." The two engage each other with Willie getting the first shot in. "Lucky shot. Now try this." Silas shoots a burst of pure dark mana and out of pure instinct, Willie responds with a mana shield of his own and managed to deflect the attack but he did take some recoil damage forcing him to a knee.

Kali and Misty's battle was well underway as the others took positions in a circle around them to prevent anyone from interfering. Kali had summoned her Akroma right out of the gate and Misty had her Phyrexian Colossus out against it.

"I doubt you have the skills to go against someone like me," Misty smarts as she has her creature continue its onslaught. "Why don't you bring out that other being inside of you and we can have a proper fight?"

"I've got the power to take you down myself," Kali came back standing firm and not showing a hint of doubt. "There's no way I'm letting Elena anywhere near you." Her white aura flares very brightly and her eyes started glowing straight white as her power grew.

"My you are packing some serious power. Let's see how far you can push it." Misty proceeds to focus her mana into several cards before casting the artifact Honden of Life's Web. "Time to get this show on the road," she smirks as she snaps her fingers and the room lights up to reveal dozens of wizards looking down at the battle taking place. "Now my followers give me your power!" Holding their hands out, the ones on the ledges began filtering their auras to Misty who began increasing in power as she started channeling the Karona card she had in her hand along with a few others.

"This looks bad," April stands shocked at the events unfolding before her. "We need to stop them from giving her all of that power."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Darren mentions dialing up one of his flyers to go after the dark wizards. Seeing this, Misty casts the artifact Phyrexian Processor in response.

"You'll do nothing of the sort," she shouts amid getting hit by Kali's Akroma but not feeling any impact from the blow. "Now with this artifact I summon a horde of minions to keep you busy." Channeling her mana into the artifact, the processor produces over two dozen 9/9 Minions. "You will not interfere with my plans anymore. Now kill them!" The minions go after the group of eight trying to figure out what to do next.

"Now what do we do?" Daniel hesitantly asked on what they were to do since they were outnumbered."

"It's obvious," Melanie steps up summoning her Titanic Bulvox. "Half of us will take the minions and the other half will go knock out the wizards. We can't let her summon Karona." Nick, Darren and Amy follow Melanie's lead and summon their beasts to aid Melanie while Jamie and the others fly up and deal with the wizards. At the main battle, Kali knew she had to do something otherwise they were all done for.

Willie was oblivious to what was going on in the other room as he had started losing energy himself against Silas's unending power attacks. Out of nothing but pure instinct, he had been using the power of his own aura to deflect the energy attacks from the enemy. Staggering to his feet, he him down looking completely drained.

"I can't believe you've lasted this long," Silas says with a smirk suffering from a bit of energy drain himself but seemed sure of one thing. "You definitely are on the path to becoming a true mana-master."

"Not that trip again," Willie angrily gets back up. "It's about time I shut you up once and for all." He attacks again but Silas throws up a shield with only his mana and as Willie hits it with his hammer, the shockwave causes him to be flown back against the wall.

"Looks like you're the one that's finished," he smarts as he senses Misty's energy in the other room for a second. "And by the feel of that energy, the rest of your team doesn't stand a chance."

"Don't worry about them. She'll be dead by the time I finish with you."

In the altar room, the group had split to deal with the dual threat. Melanie's group is making some headway against the minions but as they were getting destroyed, more were being summoned. Misty was multi-tasking between protecting her wizards as they helped charge her Karona card, powering up her colossus to keep Kali's Akroma at bay and summoning minions to keep the group busy.

"Almost there," she muttered to herself as she stares Kali down with a dark smile. "Your death is coming. I'm unstoppable."

"That's what you think," she calls back as she dials up another card on her communicator. "Now I summon Karona, Angel of Fury!" The creature appeared next to the original Karona surprising Misty for a moment as her card continued to charge despite the efforts of Jesse, April, Jamie and Evelyn to knock out the wizards.

"Done," Misty cackles as she holds up the now fully charged card in her hand. "Now you powerless fools, face your demise. I summon Karona, the False God!" A dark circle started forming below Misty as more energy is poured into it. Instinctively, Kali reacts her aura into her crystal and undergoes a huge power spike. Her aura grows brighter as her energy reacts with the dark circle and Karona is brought forth ensnared in both of the auras from Misty and Kali. The tug of war between them goes airborne. Below, the group reassembles to figure their next move.

"Anyone have any idea on our next move?" Jesse asks in amazement at the tug of war going on between the super powered ladies.

"Lend me your power," Kali yells down as she starts losing the advantage against Misty. "I know what's going to happen but first I need all of your power." The others tap into their crystals granting them a huge power boost so they could be ready for anything. After they settle in with their increased power, Melanie steps up stretching her arm out to her sister.

"You need it," she calls out as a beam of green energy is drawn from her due to the strength of the mana generated between Kali and Misty over Karona. "You got it sis." Following Melanie's lead, the others hold out their arms as Kali's aura takes in their energy allowing her to gain the advantage in the battle over the false god. Misty is beginning to struggle as the positive energy from the group is overwhelming the dark energy from her dark wizards.

"You've lost Misty. It's over."

"Not by a long shot," she snaps back as she focuses her own energy and tries in vain to gain leverage. As the light gets closer to Misty, Elena jumps from Kali into Karona and radiates her red, white and green aura as Kali continues to pour her energy into the creature as the group watches with amazement as their energies are poured into it as well. Misty is flung to the ground defeated as Karona stood large with Elena in full control.

Silas and Willie are still back and forth with Willie taking hit after hit and struggling from the power drain of the battle. As Silas was about to fire another blast of his mana, the shockwaves of the energy from the other room get his attention and it stunned him for a bit as Willie got to his feet and nonchalantly brushed the dust himself off.

"Well," he said as he flared his aura again with a smile on his face. "I guess Kali has the upper hand and Misty's defeat is imminent. Now I can finally get serious."

"What are you talking about?" Silas staggered showing a hint of nervousness as Willie reveals the crystal that's been around his neck the whole time. "You tell me that you've been faking weakness this whole time?"

"Yes and no. I've been struggling with my power for some time now so yes on the weakness part. The no part was that I have been holding back what I can really do. Now I get to see how this thing reacts with my aura." He taps into his crystal unleashing its power with a different effect. His aura grew outward then into him as the power overcame him changing his aura completely to a darker blue with white traces. "Now this . . . feels good."

"This isn't going to end well," Silas stood back putting up a mana barrier to try and block any possible attack. Willie just smirked as he prepared to charge.

"That's not going to help you now," he responds as he moves in to attack. The movement seemed like a blue and as fast as light it's over in a flash as Silas was smashed into pieces. As Willie went to look at the resulting carnage only to be more angered by what he saw. "What the . . . well that figures. Should've known that weasel sent a Proteus Machine as an illusion of himself. What a waste of mana this thing turned out to be." Holding his hammer over his neck, he walks out of the room and back to the group.

Karona is standing tall floating above everyone else in the room as she looks over the scene at the group exhausted from giving Kali most of their power. Kali was still glowing a bright white aura that wasn't blinding but made it hard to look. Misty was in a heap drained herself defeated from the power struggle knowing her chance for power was lost.

"Protectors of Varayan," Karona spoke in Elena's voice as she stared down the group of eight as Alicia joined trying to speed up their recovery. "The balance of power has been restored to its proper setting. The evil ones have been defeated and peace will soon return. But first my role in the prophecy must come to pass. The power of the sorcerers will pass on to the eight of you who stood with my master against the dark one." Karona proceeds to raise her hand and glows a white aura.

"That power belongs to me," Misty scorns as she staggers to her feet trying to channel her remaining aura power into one last card. "If I can't have that power, then I'll make sure no one else will. I cast . . ." she is suddenly stopped unable to make any move.

"Give it a rest Misty," Willie walks into the room with his hand out using his aura to basically paralyze her. "It's over and you've cast your last spell. Madam Karona, you may proceed with what you were doing."

"Thanks." She proceeds to channel her mana into her hand and several streaks of light come from it encasing each individual of the group recharging their auras and ascending all of them to the status of sorcerers. "It is done. The one you call Elena will remain with Kali and I will be a part of her collection. I will now take my leave. Another flash of light and several seconds later, all is left is Kali slowly lowering down to the floor as Willie catches her. A white orb goes into her chest as Elena retakes her position and the Karona card goes into her communicator's database.

"I've got you," Willie smiles as he lays her down on the floor. "Let her rest for a bit. She's been through a lot. We all have."

"How'd you stop Misty like you did?" Melanie questioned looking at Misty who's now cowering in fear. "It's almost like you ascended on your own accord."

"I did but it's another of those stories that I'll go into another day. Speaking of Misty, there's one more thing I have to do." He walks up to her and holding his hand out, he begins drawing out her energy stripping her of her mana aura. "I'm stripping you of your mana aura and your ability to use your cards and that reminds me," he raids her deck and relieves her of her legendary creature in Phage, the Untouchable. "You won't need this anymore." He then turns and gives it to April for safekeeping. "Got to make sure Phage and Akroma stay separated." April takes the gift and puts it away.

"What about Misty?" Jamie asks as the group stands around as noises from outside signal that security forces had arrived.

"She isn't a threat anymore," Jesse responded as the doors open and federal agents burst into the room. "I'm sure she'll enjoy talking to the feds about all the people she has killed and the lives she ruined."

"That's good but what in the world are we going to do about this place?" Kali grumbles as she wakes up and slowly gets to her feet. "Man I'm dizzy."

"Let the feds figure that one out," Willie sighs as he heads for the doors. "We're done here so let's go home." Everyone heads out leaving the feds to deal with the aftermath. Evelyn catches up to him as the group all files out.

"By the way," Evelyn whispers in Willie's ear as they all make their way down the hallway from the altar room. "What happened to Silas? You did finish him right?"

"He was never here," Willie responds with a hint of regret in his voice. "That snake in the grass summoned a Proteus Machine as an illusion with his face. He's still out there somewhere and if I ever find him, his tail is mine."

"Thank goodness it's finally over," Kali mentions as she leans on Willie holding his hand as they walk out into the sunshine.

"You can say that again. It's time for a little relaxation."

Over the next few weeks, towns across the country began repairs and its people displaced by the mayhem head back home to survey the damage and repair their lives. Due to everything that happened, damage estimates ran into the tens of billions of dollars and in a few places, the infrastructure was a total wreck. Wizards that had returned to normal showed no ill effects from what happened. Civilian populations took a major hit with a total of over 40,000 dead across the country.

Misty was arrested on federal charges of overthrowing the Varayan government, the murder of thousands of civilians and wizards across city lines, kidnapping and false imprisonment, and unauthorized construction on government property along with terrorism charges. Her trial took place several months later in the Varayan district court and she was convicted on all charges and was sentenced to life in a federal prison outside of Varayan with no chance of parole. Evelyn was also charged for her role in the madness in the Kirtren courts as she was charged with the kidnapping of those twenty-one healers that were trapped in the Sonic Shockwave Tower. Due to the fact that she did help free them and turned on Misty, she got off easy with a suspended sentence and three months' probation which recently wrapped up.

Back in Varayan things have all but gotten back to normal. Services have been restored which meant it was back to school time for the wizards who were more than eager to get back to some since of normalcy after their whirlwind adventure. The campus of Carson Central High was full abuzz with students eager to get back to it and see their friends again. As each of the four wizards arrived that morning in January, Nick, Jesse, Willie and Kali were greeted with handshakes and hugs and overall applause and at a rally later that day, they were heralded as heroes and the mayor presented each of them with a key to the city. Melanie also got the same treatment at the middle school she went to.

The biggest change of all came from what was the Temple of the False God. The building was changed into the Elfhame Palace and it houses the country's first wizard's council from all cities focused on one major objective: to make sure something like what happened with the whole Misty episode never happens again. They also decided to give the country a name that everyone signed off on: Aceleon. To the people, it meant accelerating into the future. This group put together a task force with the job of finding out where Silas was hiding and to flush him out since he was still alive and wanted by the Kirtren authorities for various misdeeds.

Peace had returned once again and with everyone getting along, no darkness was to be found anywhere but knowing a world that's full of wizards and new cards coming out every few weeks, no one knows for sure how long it will last.


End file.
